Apathy.

Back long before cell phones, computers, and even cars there was a tiny island that was at war with itself. In this war there were trained soldiers that even modern armies try to emulate. They fought without fear of death, for they believed that they were already dead and must win their battle in order to win back their lives. I speek of course of the samurai.

But what do they have to do with apathy you ask… absolutely nothing.. and that’s the point. They were the polar opposite of apathy. They were taught that there were rules.. a code. The Hagakure, outlining the rules and virtues of bushido. They were taught to never hesitate, to act according to their code without thought or consideration of personal safety.

Now that we have established a baseline for what is not apathy, let’s look at the most extreme examples of apathy from today’s society. That of the shooter. We have had a rash of shootings in this country. Some guy walks into a business or movie theater and opens fire. And in almost all cases what happens.. people run, try to hide.. and in almost every case the guy just walks through the rooms killing. I recognize these as horrible tragedies and my heart goes out to the victims families, but what I cant seem to wrap my head around is that in all but a few of these shootings the perpetrator was unopposed by those he was shooting. Now dont get angry and say “they were scared they were going to die! Of course they ran and hid!” Stop for a moment and put yourself in that position. There is a man with a gun who you know for a fact will kill you all if given the chance… run? Maybe you will get away.. but if you run he may see you and kill you anyway. Hide? Are you willing to bet your life that he cant find you? Because if he does you will have zero chance of surviving. This is my point. When you know for shure you will die if you dont stop the attacker and you lie to yourself that “maybe he will not see you” your throwing away not only your life.. but the life of everyone else that is too deeply apathetic to act even in the defense of their own life. Is this how little we value life? We love to talk about the sacredness of life.. but when it’s our turn to act? We do nothing.

You have no idea how sad this makes me. People that could have lived full healthy lives.. dead… because not one person was willing to die to stop it.. even if they were about to be killed anyway.

Just recently there was an event that put hope back in my heart. A school shooting, the worst kind of violence. Children who should never see that kind of destruction and cruelty suddenly thrust into it. And what happened? 3 students.. rushed the shooter. Two were shot. One brave soul lost his life far too soon. The shooter was subdued untill authoritys could arrive. But here is the hope.. stop and think.. how many lives were saved? How many children will see their families again? Here were three people.. not even adults… who recognized the cost of inaction. One paid the highest cost. A child did what grown men and ladys refused to do. We say that he was extraordinary, and I agree.. but the question now becomes… why are we so apathetic that we will not act to save our own life.. let alone the lives of others.

I refuse to be the lamb led to slaughter. I will fight to win back my life. I will spend my life if necessary to save others. For when there is a man with a gun who is bent on killing… I am already dead.

All it takes is 3 children to stop a gunman. Why can’t adults do better. I hope beyond hope no one is ever put into the situation where you have to make that choice. But if you are.. remeber.. children did it. How could we do any less?

Best wishes -SirHanz

Rant of the day

The first thing on my list of abominations is MANGO SALSA. That is not salsa! At best it’s chutney. At worst it is ruining a good salsa by shoving fruit where it doesn’t belong. And pineapple salsa? Ask any cam girl… there are some places you just shouldn’t shove a pineapple, and salsa is one of them.

Number two on my list has to go to mopeds. These basterd children of scooters and bicycles are death traps. Not enough power to keep you from getting run over but just enough for you to fool yourself into thinking it’s ok to be on the road. Seriously, you dont even need a drivers license to ride one. That alone should tell you not to drive it on the road. These rolling hit me signs should come with an automatic darwin award and a CD filled with emo “I want to die” songs.

The envelope please…

And the number three abomination on my list goes to….. soybeans. Yup… soy. But how could that possibly be bad you ask? Because in the last 15 years soybeans have been genetically modified so much there is now almost no non modified beans left on the whole earth. But why is that so bad? 2 reasons.

1. Almost no one used to be allergic to soy. Now there are over a million just in the USA including me. I was fine with it until they went gmo. Now.. they do horrible things to my poor belly.

2. I am a vegetarian and damm it if allmost fucking EVERYTHING made for vegetarians is made of God dammed soy! And dont get me started on Japanese food. I used to love fryed tofu with noodles. Now I can’t even eat the noodles because they put soy sauce in the broth!

Ok… deep breath… whew…. (on a scale of 1 to eat a dick.) I give that rant a ( 6.4 ) lower marks for only mild vitriol.

Time

Let me start by freely admitting that I am a sadist and want to hurt your brain a little. So sit back.. brace yourself.. and know that somewhere out there I am having a little laugh knowing that you are reading this.

I have always had an interest it time. What is time? How does it affect our lives?

Let’s start with the basics. Time is a function of two things. Entropy and memory. We measure time by looking at the changes in the world around us, we remember what things were like before and measure the rate of change… and presto… you have time. We track that change in the form of clocks and recordings. But why do we do that? Primarily because memory is flawed, we need a reference point to understand the passage of time. Before clocks we had the sun and the seasons.

What could be so mind bending about that you ask? Well… the kicker is this… memory.

Memory is flawed. As is our perception based on it. As in “gawd.. that test took forever! ” or “it’s over already? But we just started! “.

Did time speed up or slow down? No? Are you shure? If your whole concept of the passage of time is based around your experience of things moving or changing and all change happens at a certain measurable rate how would you know if time moved faster or slower? Only by observing from a perspective not effected by time could you notice time speeding up or slowing down. And since this is not possible because we ourselves are within and affected by time it is impossible for us to persevere changes in the rate that time passes. If time moves faster then everything moves faster. Our perception of time included. So we would not notice any change.

Ok.. you got all that? Feel the headache comeing on? Oh.. but I am not done…

As the theory of relativity explains, time and space are linked. When something moves at a speed close to that of light the time of the object slows down relative to the passage of time for slower moving objects. It’s the classic scifi trope of spaceship flying close to the speed of light comes back to earth thinking an hour has passed and finds the earth ruled by techno nazi’s or something. Relative mass also increases as you approach the speed of light. Time is also affected by gravity. We see this in the warping of spacetime around a black hole. So how do we know if the reverse is also true? That gravity is affected by time? I believe it is.. and I can prove it. Time moves faster and slower and we dont notice. However.. time moving faster also affects gravity. Just as an objects speed affects time. And that’s why it’s hard to drag yourself out of bed after a long night.

Wait for it…. and…. yup.. there it is… told you I was going to hurt your brain.

Best wishes -SirHanz

Pop Culture Submissives

This is something I have been wanting to write about for some time. With all the bdsm literature out there and the 50 shades movies, the idea of submission has moved into mainstream popular culture. The way I see it there are two big problems with this.

First is the portrail of what being a submissive is like. Almost always it is a bit of spanking, some restraints and sex. The problem comes when they read or see this and suddenly think they are a submissive because they like the idea of what they have read or seen in the movies. They talk with their friends about it, throw around some terms they googled like 24/7 or power exchange, and think that they want a dominant. It reminds me of high school… one of the popular girls one day starts dressing like a goth. A week later every “popular ” girl in the school is dressed in black and writing bad moodie poetry. To them it’s a fad. And that is fine for them if that is as far as it goes. The problem occurs when they start getting into the bdsm community. They love the idea of bdsm, but have no interest in the hard work it takes to be a good submissive. A real submissive LOVES that work. I know.. I know… who am I to define what a real submissive is.. right? Well it’s not me who decides the definition.

Ok I am going to take a side road here for a second to talk about words. When a word is defined and has an agreed apon set definition and then you use it to mean something else in your collage English class what do you think would happen? Will the teacher congratulate you? Or will you get an F? Words have meaning. And yes that can change over time, but can you call yourself a professional chef just because you watch a lot of food network?

Allright.. back to the topic at hand.

Second It is hard enough already to find someone, dom or sub in the bdsm community that matches what you are looking for in a partner. Now throw a bunch of pop culture subs and doms in the mix that have no idea what bdsm is really about but all claim to be experts. Haveing to sort through these is a huge pain in the ass for those that understand the difference.

There are those that start off as pop culture subs or doms that get into it and realize they are in over their head but honestly want to learn. These can often be a wonderful addition to any community if given proper care and information. But they are rare. Usually when a pop sub or dom gets in over their head they blame those around them for their own failure. They can be vary destructive and cause good subs and doms to leave a community rather than deal with them.

Ok.. enough ranting for now..

Always be open to learning and you will go far.

Best wishes -SirHanz

Yoga Pants

Firstly, let me Express my sincere thanks to whom ever invented this and made it ok for ladies to walk around in public showing off their assets.

Second, why would you wear them to work? I asked a coworker at the yoga center where I cook sometimes. The conversation went like this…

Me “just wanted to make shure you knew… I can totally see your underwear though your yoga pants”

her “yah I know”

me “you realize you are a walking sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. It’s like if I look I am fired for harassment, if I don’t look I am lying cuz I cant not look.”

Her ” they are just comfortable, and i like to be comfortable when i am working ”

Me *facepalm * “you are killing me here. What if i get distracted and burn myself? Or add too much salt?”

Her “dont do that”

So what have we learned..

1. Fine for around the house.

2. Great if you want to be eye candy.

3. Yes. If they have a print on them or are a light color I can see your thong.

4. Please dont wear them to work. The job is hard enough without accidents happening or being fired for looking at your ass.

5. Seriously… it’s like your not wearing pants. If you wear them in public you are not allowed to give men the evil eye for looking at your legs and ass when you walk around.

Ok rant over. Just for research purposes I am going to need you to pick up the pennies on the floor without bending your knees. Do it for science.