Pathos, Logos, and Ethos

I’ve read a lot lately. So far I must say I am incredibly impressed with Mr. Sowell’s latest book, Intellectuals and Society. Of all the people I’ve a deep respect for, I must say Thomas Sowell ranks high. I’ve also been going back to some of the classics, including my old Aristotle favorite (On Rhetoric)

In regards to my writing, I’ve been off lately. I’ve also been editing my NaNoWriMo novel, even though I’m not entirely sure whether I’ll ever seek out having it published. The novel itself is fine, but it suffers from my inability to accept mediocrity. This is not to gloat, rather it’s a realization that the novel probably doesn’t jive well with the intended audience. That, much to my chagrin, would be my problem. Still, I love the story and I want to extrapolate a bit, so I figured I’d write a few short stories to go along with the novel.

I’m not certain when those stories will be posted, if ever, but if they are it will be here. Anyhow, I’m off. By the way, here’s a new photo of me. I finally made a resume on Monster.com and this was the photo I used. I think it shows off my awesomeness… alright, it was the photo that made me look not so fat.

I promise, I'm not that egotistical

Random Writing

I spent much of my day yesterday writing. This may not sound astounding since I consider myself a writer. Nevertheless, the last week or so has been an absolute hell for me. Not only have I not been able to write, but I’ve been under a strange spell. My head hurts, my eyes are bothering me, my stomach is clenched, I can feel small spasm near the right side of my ribcage. Writing is the last of my worries.

Personally, I think all of that pain is brought on my mental issues. In my case I find myself having to deal with a lot of stress as of late and my body simply cannot handle it. Yet, yesterday I was finally able to sit down and write. I took full advantage of this, writing as much as I could and without boundaries. Out of all of the work I did I figured I would post a short excerpt from a story I nicknamed Pathos.

A view from below

Some bridge or something, I dunno

The reason I’m in San Francisco right now is almost entirely due to denial. Unfortunately, it would seem that I am an emotional being. I try my hardest not to be, and I am certainly an introverted fellow, but nevertheless I often find myself in a thick bit of anxious tedium. Also, I’ve always made friends on the basis that they are family. This is to say that I choose my friends as my brethren, my siblings. So, essentially, I have a small group of people who I can confide the absolute truth with.

Now certainly this sounds ideal for many people. The problem is that sometimes you are forced to ignore or, unfortunately, suffer those who do not believe in such a friendship. There are people who simply think of friends in the jovial manner: there to drink with, there to laugh with, and never there to discuss the problems of life. It seems that was the very basis of ever friend I had in school. As we mature, of course, we learn to avoid those people and try our hardest to find people we can truly relate to.

Well, I am a twenty-two year old man and I know the sort of people I like. If you want to be my friend there are two things you have to not only tolerate but, to a certain extent, emulate: a dark sense of humor and an inability to be offended. Surely we all have those things which offend us, but I don’t tolerate those who dwell upon it or those who cannot accept that others are not offended.

Now the problem I am having is that my sisters, both of whom I love dearly and yet I’ve only known them for a few months now, are the opposite of me. I make cruel jokes, I laugh at the misfortune of others, I am incredibly self-confident (though, I think they are as well), and I enjoy a drink every now and again. I also happen to be very boisterous.

I’ve found myself quite attached to my sisters, even if they are much different from I am. Yet, it seems that I have somehow made myself a bit of a pariah in their lives. I found out they are not very fond of my mom, who they are not related to by blood. From that I was informed that they do not accept people into their lives if they are chronic drinkers or drug abusers. Well, I don’t do drugs of any sort, with the obvious exclusion of Tylenol. However, I am a fond drinker.

I tried to send a few emails to my sister informing her that I was leaving to San Francisco for a week and why I was going, to essentially escape how bad I feel for apparently disappointing them, and to my chagrin I was never given a response. Yes, I know, I am over thinking this by miles. However, I’ve begun to realize the big fault in all of this: I only care about my sisters because they are my sisters.

If one of my random friends informed me that I was to no longer drink in front of them or even mention the idea of drinking, whether they’re involved or not, I would immediately ask them to stop calling and coming over to my house. Now, I don’t necessarily mind not mentioning I am drinking. I’ve a friend who doesn’t like hearing drunk stories, so I don’t bother him with it. Nevertheless, he is perfectly fine if I drink a beer in front of him.

And so what am I to do now? Certainly I will not kick my sisters out from my life, I would never dream of that. It would probably break my heart more than it would theirs. However, it seems I am forever marred, as though I wear a scarlet letter, because they know that I drink and do so frequently. To figure it all out, however, I decided to come here to San Francisco for a week to try and find some semblance of an honest answer. I’ve asked my friends and in true Libertarian style they simply said to put them on the list of family that does not matter. Unfortunately, I can’t.

Well damn it all to hell. Alright, I’m off to grab some lunch before my friend gets pissed that I’m using too much of his internet. Apparently he only has a gallon left…

-Irish

P.S.: This post was not proofread or edited, mostly because I have food waiting and it is worth more than your ability to read this post. SHAZAM!

The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

This will be a short post, I have things to do…

Thanksgiving has NOTHING to do with Native Americans. The holiday does not celebrate the early settlers or the often-exaggerated meal they and the Native Americans had. We do not celebrate this holiday as a recognition of America or of our history. Instead, this is a strictly American holiday where we sit down, around a table, and finally look one another in the eye.

No longer do we sit around a dinner table with our family and eat. Instead, we consider the television our dinner table and instead of talking to one another we find ourselves enamored by the likes of idiots embarrassing them and their eight children. Poor kids. Yet, for at least one day, we do sit around a table and enjoy the company of others. We eat a marvelous meal, one labored over all day long, and we truly become thankful for what we have.

Thanksgiving has absolutely nothing to do with helping the poor or feeding the homeless. Sure, we do that sort of stuff, but only once a year. It doesn’t really count, sorry. Thanksgiving is not about family, actually. It’s not about food or football or that stupid parade that happens every year. In all ways, Thanksgiving is a holiday to celebrate for the pure enjoyment of being alive.

The true meaning of Thanksgiving is as simple as it can be: eat, drink, and be happy, for you are alive.

-Irish

P.S.: Too much turkey… can’t… be… grammatically… correct!

Political Irish: Sarah Palin

I am a strange individual. I am pro-life, though I’m also of the opinion that we should let voters decide on whether or not abortion should be legal. You see, I’m one of those weirdos who believe that as a whole we Americans are brilliant and can be, at any given time, the radiant beacon that this world needs. So while I am personally against the idea of abortion, I will never tell somebody else they should not do it or consider it. That being said, I would also hope they would not then tell me how to live.

So, essentially, I am a strange individual. In our current society it seems that we have a strange desire to judge others and force upon them our way of life. If they do not act and do as we wish then suddenly they become the opposite of what we all picture ourselves to be: intelligent.

We try our hardest to portray to others our brilliance by quoting scientists and rambling off exaggerated half-truths. In recent years it’s become in vogue to be Green. Suddenly our greatest friend is Al Gore and our Prius, we use CFL light bulbs, and we are actively trying to pass new laws which will punish individuals for burning too much electricity. This is just the normal stuff, mind you. There are people out there who are literally composting their old food and refusing to flush the toilet.

And yet, last week this story came out. Oh, dear readers, you have no idea how much I hope this is not  a hoax or otherwise false in some way. Immediately upon hearing it I figured it was just another extremist point of view from the right, but come to find out it was a hacker. Have I ever mentioned how much hackers make me smile at times?

Nevertheless, to essentially inform all of these people, the same ones who compost their leftover turkey breasts because they are certain Al Gore would not lie to them, that it is worthless to act as they often do will in fact make me scream in utter contentment and personal happiness. I must admit that, much like the rest of the American society I dwell in, I love seeing the pain of others. And don’t say that you don’t, if that were the case then reality television would not be so popular.

So why am I ranting on about all of this? Sarah Palin.

I am not a massive fan of Mrs. Palin. I agree to a certain extent with her ideas, but I also disagree with many of her pious notions. In fairness, I am not a religious individual, not even in the slightest and it does frighten me when someone so devout, a person who lives through their deity, comes to power. Then again, being apathetic to how others live their lives, I would not then judge her on her opinion to be religious. There is no reason for me to punish someone else simply because I disagree with them.

What drives me insane about the Sarah Palin situation is the flood of self righteous lefties who have flocked in to insult her and label her unintelligent. What makes me laugh about all of this, however, is how overtly bigoted so much of the flak she gets is. It is pure and simple sexism on the most blatant level. Sarah Palin is no more radical than ANY other far Right Republican, yet we demonize her specifically and make certain we always call her stupid or dumb or some other overly used adjective. Why did we not do this to John McCain or Mitt Romney? Hey, Bobby Jindal is from the south, why not poke fun at him for being funny looking? No, that was not a knock against his race, I just think he has an overgrown head, just as Mitt Romney looks and acts like a game show host.

This is not a simply something done to the Republicans, however. America considered Hillary Clinton to be too masculine and not womanly enough, yet when she broke down and cried we immediately called her too weak for the job. Others, however, accused her of faking the emotional outburst. Why? Is it simply because we view her as a heartless beast who isn’t feminine enough?

All of this goes back to the simple idea that we feel forced to give everyone a title and make sure we judge them appropriately. Apparently we’re still residing in a country where women are automatically ignorant, unless they’re liberal, in which case they’re heartless. Don’t think I am picking on Democrats and Liberals only, the Right is just as guilty when they insult liberal women. Hell, a good portion of the Republican base were against Palin because they still foolishly think women should only exist in one of two forms: pregnant or cooking.

Clearly men are better chefs!… sorry.

-Irish

P.S.: This has not been edited or proofread in any way. This is a rant and I don’t give a flying monkey penis about whether or not it makes grammatical sense.

Rant #39712: Fantasy

Tomorrow I will be fully engrossed in the PC game Dragon Age Origins for a good many days. Yet, even with my admitted addiction to such nerdom, I am a strong opponent of all fantasy stereotypes. The mining dwarves, the noble elves, and, worst of all, the evil goblins or orcs. Perhaps I am strictly incorrect, but it seems to me that each and every fantasy novel that I have ever read has the same stereotypes and the same plot (essentially).

One of the things I never quite understood what the popular theme that Humans are young and brave, but ultimately too greedy. I understand the roots to a certain extent, but it seems absurd that only humans feel this inclination towards the dark side. The mere fact we are the only ones with such voracious greed, with exception to the orcs who destroy entire forests and molest the nature spirits, is slightly offense to me as a writer. Each and every character and person is supposed to be different.

And there is another problem: why are orcs inherently evil. Is it purely because they look evil and, as always, we must have a villain to sneer at? How about, instead of all of that, we get an evil elf who begins a genocidal war against orcs. Maybe we could get a story where goblins are the slaves of the dwarves or where humans take the place of elves.

Oh, I forgot, Tolkien didn’t write about those things so we must not ever say them aloud. The truth is, in one way or another, we’ve been ripping this poor man off ever since he wrote “There once was a hobbit who lived in a hole…” on some poor college kids paper. This man wrote from his experience in life, but we write from his inspiration. By that description alone I am tempted to say all books written not with original ideas are then nothing more than fictionalized versions of ourself forced into Tolkien’s world with a different name.

Maybe it is because I am a raging capitalist, but I am not a fan of Tolkien. Then again, if I were a true capitalist, I would shut up and go write fifty high fantasy books about a single human being who is the one and finds a magical amulet that he must destroy before the wicked hands of the mage Blarghblahboobaa comes to rip it from me with his massive orc army who kills innocent people ’cause its wicked fun (pun intended).

The reason I bring all of this up is because of a friend of mine, a fellow writer, believes that my opinion on this subject is utter fallacy. According to him, this genre is no different from any other. Writers often taken their favorites, the perennial classics, and reform them into their own story. And while that is true, I must admit my respect for those sorts of people, no matter who they may be, is limited. So, accordingly, he challenged me to participate in the NaNoWriMo and to write a fantasy novel that does NOT follow the standard guidelines of high fantasy.

So for the next month I will be posting updates every now and again on my progress.

 

-Irish

Count this as tomorrows

I tried god damn it. I tried! I put all my effort into reading the damn thing.

The 1,900 page Health Care bill being voted on in less than 72 hours now is absolute lunacy and makes NO sense. I’m not one of these nuts who believes in anarcho-capitalism or anarcho-socialism (jumbo shrimp?), but I have to admit that this is as close as I get to hating government. This bill is absolute gibberish. Go, try, I beg you, to understand the damn thing.

Alright, maybe I’m just not very bright. Perhaps I’m one of those folks who just doesn’t belong in the political debate. However, I still have an opinion and I’m out of alcohol God damn it! I’m opinionated!

Well, alright, not an actual opinion, just confusion. Go on, try to read the damn thing. I’m not a conspiracy nut, so basically I’m saying I don’t watch Glenn Beck, but all of this stuff really creeps me out. The mere fact they are only giving us 72 hours to read this thing is laughable on its own. Most book range from three hundred to four hundred pages, and often those pages are the equal of half of one. So, if you want to put this bill in the form of a novel it would be close to four thousand pages.

Holy monkey penis, Batman!

I understand that a bill such as this demands thoroughness, but it has gotten ridiculous. As I said, I am not a conspiracy nut, but I can’t help but honestly wonder if this bill was purposefully extended to make sure a lot of people don’t get to see the honest truth behind much of it. Then again, a good majority of the anti-universal healthcare folk, we call them Glenn Beckers, are also religious zealots. Of all the people to dare to find a single passage or, in this case, sentence which supports their cause it is NOT a zealot.

If I am to speak plainly, then I do not want universal health care, or the ridiculously renamed Public Option, because I don’t trust anyone else more than myself. I am not saying I hate the government or that it’s all a conspiracy to make us raving homosexuals so that we’ll always vote Democrat (Sorry gay folk, ya know I got your back… write your own jokes, people). I just don’t want anyone else touching my health care.

Oh yeah, I’m too poor to afford health care. So I don’t want any damn emails from you people (I’m looking at you Eric, you d**kface) saying that I’m some rich kids from California who doesn’t have to worry about this sort of stuff. Trust me, I’d love nothing more than to go and see a dentist – I’ve had a broken tooth for over four years now and it’s starting to get a little rusty.

-Irish

P.S.: Sorry if I seem extra mean, as well as grammatical challenged. I can’t sleep and there is no alcohol in my house, which makes me a sad, sad individual.

Health Care, H1N1, and the Spineless

Sick Irish

I finished my work for the week, which was essentially to finish writing and editing two short stories, and so I am essentially free of responsibility. Except for that whole helping the family thing where I basically clean my mom’s house so that she doesn’t have to do it herself. She’s got some pretty heavy medical problems, one of which is essentially have dead nerves in her feet. All she feels is pain.

Her medical bills are starting to get pretty high and she doesn’t live a very good life for someone who has worked so hard to attain one. Admittedly, she knows it was her own fault for buying a condo and then seeing the value of said condo go from six figures to five. The neighborhood is getting worse and she’s somewhat worried about losing her job and still being able to pay her mortgage, even if she’s losing on the house. I think that is the main difference between her and many of the other people in her position: she refuses to accept help from the government.

No, no, this will not be some sociopolitical Libertarian-based literary gangbang where I call Obama the next Hitler and quote Glenn Beck. I am simply saying my mom does not want the help of the government. Why? Well, she’s afraid of being taxed. In fact, her taxes have already gone up and now she’s at the point where she only has fifty dollars a week for food. That’s less than ten dollars a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

She is currently worried over the Health Care bill being pushed by the Democrats in Congress. While she can barely afford health care, she has no interest in free health care. And so, hoping to ease her, I informed her that I would be reading the bill that has just been put online for seventy-two hours. Yeah… seventy-two hours only. No matter my opinion on those who wrote this bill, I really want to convey to them that this is what we call a dick move on your part.

So for the better half of the next three days I will be head deep in a pile of Congressional nonsense, praying all the while I am able to keep my sanity. If I do figure it out, which I won’t, then I’ll write another post in three days explaining why I will be moving to the Azores very shortly. Shit, do they have universal healthcare too? Fuck.

Sorry for the graphic language.

And finally we have H1N1. Recently a CBS story came out which says that the majority of the cases of H1N1 were… not… actually H1N1. Yeah, so we’re worried over NOTHING. The normal flu kills more people than H1N1. The only reason we’re worried is because it affects younger people. However, the only people dying are those with a secondary condition. In all, only about a thousand Americans have died from this. That’s it. It may sound cold hearted and it is, but a thousand lives are nothing when you compare them to many other statistics.

So I suppose now we should illegalize alcohol as well, correct? Think of all of the lives this will save. Oh, that’s right, people will still drink. Well, people will still get sick if they get the H1N1 shot. Some people end up with paralyzing nerve issues.

Why is it that people seem so enthralled on banning on right to be stupid? I know that sounds like an absurd question, but the only way we ever learn from our mistakes is to have made them and live through them. Unfortunately, some people die from their mistakes, but that will never change! No matter what you illegalize or make mandatory, PEOPLE WILL STILL DIE! It’s that whole life thing. If we took away every gun than murder wouldn’t stop, we’d simply start stabbing or beating people. And once we take away all of our knives and sticks then we’ll starting choking one another to death.

Take precautions, make sure you are ready for a flu, and carry on. Don’t be spineless.

-Irish

A Pleasant Train Ride to Auschwitz

Hmm, I should probably apologize for the title of this post. It is a bit grim. Sorry.

Back to the point… I QUIT!

Alright, I don’t quit, I’m just not writing A Fall of Man any longer. Why? you ask. Well, I lost interest. I suppose if I went and played some more Batman: Arkham Asylum I might come back and write some more. Nevertheless, for the time being, I am feeling a heavy bit of malaise and I’m trying desperately to put many of the pieces of my life back in their correct place. Well, that and I got bored of writing the story. You see, it was an exercise which worked out perfectly. Sure, I did not finish the story, but I was able to delve into the position of an animated narrator.

I started this blog with many ideas in my head about how to narrate this. The truth was that I hadn’t quite planned for the long term. I figured I could just have fun going a bit insane and writing whatever I felt I wanted to write. Well, unfortunately I found out that I did not like that type of writing. While I admire writers able to portray a narrator in such a way, I am not entirely sure if I am capable of it currently. No, no, I’m not saying I’m a terrible writer, I just haven’t garnered the correct writing skills to make the story jump. Instead, it was a poor example of “meh”. No one ever wants their work labeled “meh”.

So now I go onto an unknown future, but then all futures are truly unknown. I will continue to write in this blog, but I think I’ll do so about what I’ve been learning as I continue to write and understand the most basic and yet important ability that we have: the usage of our minds in regards to the creation of ideas and stories, fictitious or otherwise, and the ability to tell them.

-Irish

More Social Commentary

I know, I know, I have to stop all this social commentary, but this really bothers me. In case you haven’t heard, Roman Polanski, director of such movies as Chinatown and that other one, was finally arrested for the rape of a thirteen year old girl. I would go into the long description of everything, but I don’t have the spirit to. You see, I’ve always believed that people are decent at heart. Then I began to hear time and again all of these people in Hollywood who are openly speaking out against the arrest… no, not the sodomization of a thirteen year old girl.

Once more I am reminded to trust only myself and no one else. No, no, I don’t fear being raped… I think I’ll be cool. What I’ve realized is so untrustworthy are people and the value of life they put on certain individuals. You see, this one man, deemed a genius by his peers, is worth more than the innocence of a child. Think about that for one moment. The artistry of this one man, Roman Polanski, who made the blockbuster The Ninth Gate, is more valuable than the virginity of a thirteen year old girl. Since he made such marvelous wonders as The Fearless Vampire Killers he is allowed to drug a child and then sodomize her, pay her off, and live a life of luxury in Europe.

Oh, but we should forgive him because SHE forgave him. I’ve got to tell you, it has NEVER (EVAR) crossed my mind to drug anyone (EVAR) and then proceed to violate them horribly. It takes someone special to do something as fucked up as that. This guy deserves to be in a mental hospital somewhere with very large padded walls and no children that he can molest. Oh, but he is a genius, and clearly a man who made the film What? is a genius, and deserves to live without blame.

What a bunch of sick fucking people we’ve become to defend this type of human.

-Irish

P.S.: Yes, Whoopie Goldberg, sodomization IS rape, rape!