I had a great break and was able to reminisce with almost all of my friends.  We had a good time and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking about what we plan to do with our lives and how our education is going.  However, one of my friends was not able to come home for thanksgiving because he is Dutch and he lives back in the netherlands. 

He was a stereotypical hood rat in school.  He got bad grades, did illegal things on the weekend, however he was a talented artist and an amazing friend with more loyalty than I have ever seen.  He had a talent for art and graffiti and he took advantage of his talents.  When he went home to Holland after high school, and all of my friends and I missed him to the point of crying however we knew that he would make it in the real world because of his passion, and all of us were right.

Over break I talked with my friends about their classes but the most important conversation I had was with my college drop out best friend who has more passion and loyalty than anyone I know. 

I talked to him and he, in the past 5 months since he left, has come up with a new life plan based around his skills in art and graffiti. He decided that his passion is in fashion but not in the stereotypical fashion that is in fashion shows but rather in the styles such as stars and straps by travis barker.  He found his passion and is doing all he can do to make it work for him.

I talked to him a few days ago and he recently got a deal with Kempi, a well known rapper in the netherlands, to design his t shirts for him and his crew.  It is a great start for his fashion business and I could not be more proud of him.  

Tim from Holland (thats our nickname for him) is a hero to us all because he did not listen to stereotypical education that said that he was a D student.  He knew who he was and what he was good at and was able to turn that into a growing industry.  I can not wait for his fashion skills to blowup because I know that his passion will make his industry grow and become the next new fashion.  

airports

Tomorrow I am heading home for thanksgiving and I can not wait to be home.  However, there is one thing I am not looking forward to, the airport.  Thanksgiving time is known for packing every airport but that is not what bothers me about holiday traveling.  What bothers me is the attitude everyone seems to have while traveling.  

I try to stay positive whenever at the airport especially when the security lines are a mile long and my plane gets delayed two hours because 99.9% of the time the problem is out of my control and the people working at the security checkpoint and at the gate have nothing to do with the delays so there is no reason to get in their faces about the problems.  

What really grinds my gears are the people that find the need to chew out the employees at the airport and talk out loud about what their expert self believes the problem is and how easy it would be to fix it.  For some reason they believe that everyone else traveling wants to hear their solutions, but I for one do not.  If everyone just stood in line and maybe took some time to make small talk with everyone else in line the airport would be much more enjoyable.  

I plan on doing just that and arriving at the airport with amble time before my flight boards so I won't stress about missing my flight and I suggest, for the sake of everyone traveling, that you do the same.  

My new plan

I have been struggling ever since I got to college to figure out what exactly I want to do with my life.  I know it's early and I have the rest of college and then more years after that to figure it all out but I like to have a plan and I understand that plans change.  So over the past few months I started questioning what I thought I could do everyday for the rest of my life and this is what I came up with.

I started off by eliminating a 9-5, I know everyone says that but I honestly believe that I would kill myself if I ended up pushing papers for a major corporation, its just not for me.  That was the main reason I switched majors from business to engineering, corporations just aren't the destination I'm looking for in life.  

So I picked engineering because I was good at physics in high school and I enjoy watching shows like "Megastructures" on the discovery channel and when I read on the plane I read car magazines such as "four wheeler", an magazine dedicated to off roading vehicles.  

"Hey, maybe I'll do that, build cars for the rest of my life."  But I thought about it and the fact is that I like reading those magazines because I want those cars for myself. I would have a difficult time putting my heart and soul into a car just to turn around and sell it.  Custom car fabrication might be a hobby of mine later in life but not a job so I moved on to some different ideas.

I talked about it with my dad over fall break and he stated a very simple question that completely changed the way I looked at my future life.  He asked me "what do you enjoy the most in your life?"  I thought about it and I stated the most obvious answer I could think of, "I enjoy spending time with my family and friends."  So he said, "what's something you can do that makes you money while being with friends and family?"

I couldn't answer that question fast, so I took some time to think it over.  However, by the time fall break was drawing to a close I came up with it, I'm going to open a bar.  It's the perfect solution.  My mom can cook, my dad runs his own business already so he can help with the books, and my friends and I could run the bar ourselves.  I would have no problem waking up if all I had to do during the day was hang out with my friends while serving drinks and food all while meeting new people and hearing their stories, its sounds like a great life to me, and the best part about it is I can be my own boss which has always been my dream job.  

Religulous

Last night I went to go see the movie Religulous with two of my friends after the football game and it is now my second favorite movie following only The Shawshank Redemption.  The movie is a documentary that follows comedian Bill Maher around the world and he interviews religious figures as well as common people and points out the ridiculous nature of religion.  I wouldn't say that it opened my eyes because I have always felt the same way as Bill Maher about religion but I could never say anything about how I feel because I am not educated when it comes to religion.  Bill Maher on the other hand seemed in the movie to be very educated. He was able to quote from scriptures and correct preachers during interviews.  

There were several ideas that Bill Maher covered in the movie that I feel entitled to share because they do a great job in pointing out the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of religion.  The first one was at the beginning of the movie when he is talking to a Christian store owner.  Bill Maher gets to talking about Santa Clause and the store owner cuts in to state that he doesn't believe in Santa Clause.  Bill Maher then follows that with "of course not, a man who flies around on a sled and drops presents down the chimneys of everyone in the world in one night, thats ridiculous.  Now a man who can hear every murmur from everyone in the world at one time, not that I get."  The point that Bill Maher makes here is that the stories that religions talk about are as crazy as fairy tales that we were raised on as kids, but because we see these stories as "religion" no one questions them and I understand completely why people don't question them.  It is completely out of fear, and that is why I have a problem with most organized religions, mainly christianity.  

Fear is a very powerful thing, and I have come to see that it is so powerful that it can control billions of people.  I find the reason that no one stands up to christianity is because of Hell, this imaginary place where everyone goes who does not follow God.  Hell is said to be worse than anything you imagine, but Bill Maher follows the idea of hell up with the fact that he "has a problem with the fact that our supposed Lord has such a petty human emotion such as jealousy where he would send anyone who does not follow him to Hell, it is just ridiculous."  

To go back to the idea of fear and also to change religions from christianity to Islam, fear is just as much of a reason why no one voices their opinions against that religion.  In the movie, Bill Maher talks about a man who made a video voicing out against Islam.  The man who created the movie was shot eight times and stabbed twice by islamic extremists.  Why on earth would anyone voice out against Islam if they know they are going to be killed? 

To move away from fear and onto hypocrisy, I would like to point out the main idea spoken by Jesus, who is believed to be the son of God, and what he preached.  His main message was that money was evil.  This idea is shown in Matthew 19:24 when jesus says "it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven".  If that is what Jesus believed then why do preachers drive fancy cars and own thousand dollar suits and why does the Vatican consist of elaborate buildings that look almost like palaces?  Is that really what Jesus wanted?

Hypocrisy is just as noticeable in Islam.  Bill Maher asked multiple Islamic people what the main message of Islam was and they all said peace.  So why is it that a religion of peace is responsible for suicide bombings and terrorist attacks?  Also, the website themessageofislam.com states that Islam is a religion that "holds no race, nationality, gender, or social class."  However, in the movie Religulous, there is a designated corner for women to pray in The Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Also, no Jewish people are allowed in the temple.  That sounds a lot like discrimination to me.  

This movie did not change my views because I have always been against organized religion.  I feel that almost every organized religion has strayed so far from it original beliefs that is is disgusting.  It has strayed to far that religions with a foundation for giving to the poor and not worrying about money are now some of the most powerful businesses in the world and a religion based on peace and equality discriminates against women and kills everyone that speaks out against it.  What I would rather have then people blindly follow their designated religions is for them to take their religion and see it with a judgmental eye.  Look past the ridiculous stories and search for the true foundation of it because that is what religion was meant to be, a guide to living a better life.  

Politics

I have never been involved in politics.  Growing up I never followed along because in my eyes it was a bunch of glorified bickering.  Now that I'm able to vote I felt it necessary to get more involved and start listening to talk shows and watching CNN for the candidates speeches.  From what I am gathering my views as a child were spot on.  No candidate has said anything revolutionary, no specific goals or ideas, just basic goals like "get our nations economy under control".  I already knew that but I need to hear someone layout specific plans and ideas with some numbers or something to know that a good amount of thought went into the planning.  Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about because I have only been listening to this stuff for about a month but it seems to be pointless.  If anyone has any explanations to why political debates and speeches are useful please let me know because my view now is that every politician says what the people want to hear but when it comes time to get things done they ultimately do what they think is going to work, not what the people think is going to work.   

simple pleasures

I love hitting a ball against a wall.  It is a new passion I found here at SMU. I have become addicted to it.  I crave the simple act of a ball bouncing off a wall.  I get done with doing integration by parts in math class and all I want to do is hit a ball with a racquet.  I write a three page paper but what I think about while writing it is a ball hitting a wall.  My only explanation to why I love it so much is because it is so simple.  The concept is easy, hit the ball against the wall.  In the world I live in, with the pressure and complexity of everyday life, hitting a ball against a wall for an hour is easily one of the most enjoyable things I could do.