How's My Driving?

Is it an inherent defect born into all Californians that being anywhere in, near or around traffic turns them into simple-minded idiots? How difficult is it to function in a city that is mostly made up of more cars than people? I’m sick to death of wondering if today is the day that an old lady doing 120 mph is going to barrel into the side of my luxurious sports car (read ‘99 Hyundai Elantra with two broken windows), or the critically stupid person who cannot figure out the subtle difference between green and red is going to sideswipe me and trust me it quite literally happens every day. I don’t think I should have to worry about my physical well-being whenever I drive in a city where there is no black ice, or white outs, but I do think that there should be some sort of stricter qualifications for driving in L.A. other than being able to point out a car in a parking lot. Our standards for vehicular safety are about as effective as color coding for national security. How many times a day do we pass an accident on the road, not the side of the road mind you, but spread across 3 of the 5 lanes of the freeway, and instead of being worried about the health of the person who was caught unawares by the mentally inept text messenger of death, we all slow down to stare and without fail another accident happens. This god-forsaken freeway system has desensitizes me as well as everyone else in L.A. We no longer care if someone has died, and in fact, there are times I’m hoping that there has been a death simply so I feel my time wasn’t wasted. L.A. has created a self-indulged driver out of me.

Religion, why?

The insanity that comes with those religious fanatics can strangely enough unnerve even me. Not their passion for it or belief system, that’s all fine. What gets me is that there isn’t something in them that says ‘hey, it’s really just my belief but I get it’s most likely not real, just something to get me through the hard days and an excuse to put responsibility on someone else’. I’ve sat through a New Testament as Literature class for the last couple months with a genuine interest in reading the bible as the work of fiction that it is. It’s a story written down long after the supposed events took place and even then its contradictions are everywhere. I enjoy reading the bible. I don’t hate the people that believe in it, in fact I envy them. I don’t have that childlike wonder anymore that allows me to actually believe in something so completely without ever asking questions. In this class I attend I find more often than not that everyone in there is unable separate themselves from their beliefs long enough to look at that bible as a story. Every answer to discussion is God’s love, or because of the devil. Nothing grates on me more than hearing these child-like answers to questions that could actually help them to understand the bible as a tool for living a good life according to some of its philosophies. Just reading the bible I’ve discovered that there is no “devil”. Satan, as he is portrayed within the text, is part of God’s “angels” or soldiers. In the book of Job, the Satan is testing Job’s faith in God for God’s sake. Think of it as looking for flaws within the faith of man. The ironic part of it is that God allowed it to happen. Instead of the omniscient God of lore, this one has to see physical evidence, and Job has more than his share. He is mentally and physically tortured for God’s edification, Satan was just doing his job. When Satan shows up in the New Testament to tempt Jesus he is again doing his job to test his faith. More than anything that points to Jesus not actually being who he claims because one of God’s own would know if God had a son. Lucifer is mentioned once in the Old Testament and all evidence points to this name referring to the King of Babylon. Nowhere in the surrounding text does this name find a connection to “the devil”. In Genesis a serpent is responsible for tempting Eve (in one of the two versions of creation) and God cursed the serpent but never associated it with “the devil”. Most people’s idea about Satan comes from Dante and Milton, not their actual readings of it just the mythos that has come to be associated with it.

A Coffee Shop Start

Hazelnut Cream coffee. It's how it all starts. This is the motivation I need to begin to write. I have to come to some sort of coffee brewing establishment in order to feel like I can write...no idea why. I think it has something to do with having the delusion of being a writer. I picture my favorite writers hanging out in ye old coffee shops, waxing over what has been on their mind and now needs to be put in print (in one form or another). Now...what the hell do I write? I think the best thing would be to set up goals for this relationship that we're about to begin, because we should all be striving to get something out of this. I want to talk to you about everything that pops up into my mind such as movies, religion, personal dilemmas, superheroes, comics, a desire to be an actor, etc. I want to see this become more of a dialogue with like-minded peoples as well as those not so like-minded. I hope to enrage some of you, depress you, move you to feel some things as I do and vice-versa.

The enraging begins now. Not to you, but to the good folk of Corner Bakery who are looking at me with my cup of coffee and not much else like I am a homeless vagrant pissing on their floor. The manager here loves to give me the stink-eye for sitting here. I am going to get food, but shit, I'm not hungry right now. My cup of coffee will suffice. For you, my newfound friends (and possibly enemies) I will see you soon.