Voice of the Uninformed

The many stages of a Non-Drunk Arlin.

2011-06-25T23:04:00.003-07:00

Okay, so first off, this blog was originally a place for me to be all 'holier then thou' and try and change the world. If you want proof, read my other entries dated years ago. That didn't work so well (if the long date was any indication)

The new plan is to maybe just make people's lives better through humor. I think I can manage that. Sure I won't win any noble peace prizes, but then what would I do with them all? Cause you know, if I started winning them, I'd win all of them...

That was joke. Work with me.

Anyway, so today I went to the High School Prom. Rather, tonight. Also, it wasn't really my prom. It was the teenagers prom. I'm like 23. I was invited, and not having any untold millions with which to swim in for a good alternative, I decided to go.

It started off much like my last prom. I was sober as I so frequently am. (I never drink. REMEMBER THAT!) I was also serious. And more importantly, not really expecting to enjoy myself. I don't what it was back then, or now for that matter, but prom is never quite how I imagine it.

Flash back... five years. I was in the graduating class. Prom was coming up. I had a huge crush on a girl from out of town, so much so that I invited her to Prom, and then drove with a friend to GP to pick her up. We had a pretty good time. But I was expecting... I dunno... something romantic? Instead I get a non stop stream of filthy music and dirty music videos. Only a few good songs punctuated the prom. Still I managed to have a good time.

Not good enough for me and her though. As five years later (aka now) she is married and has two kids.

Now this time around, I'm not going to woo anyone, as I'm the one who's been invited, not doing the inviting. I am going not for myself, but to ensure that my date has a good time.

As I walk into a crowded hall full of energetic teenagers, I feel incredibly old. Like a fossil in a play ground. Yet despite my discomfort, none of them seem to notice. With the exception of a few joyful greetings to friends I know, I more or less blend in. Much to my relief.

I didn't know this right away though. The doors opened at 5:30, but the party didn't get started till 7:00. So I had a hour and a half to sit around and stew in my juices. I tried to make small talk, but my mind kept wandering to how out of place I was. I was sober, and nervous. Utterly afraid I would end the night in some brawl. Which of course I would win. Come all, I'll take all challengers!

No brawl though. I'll be honest, I think that's a good thing. I'd hate to sully my 'no fights' record now.

Now the party is getting started. The music is a combination of country, rap, and filthy rap. Oh wait... all the rap was filthy that night. Also, a little dance music, and filthy dance music. All of course liberally sprinkled with lewd music videos proudly displayed on two massive projector screens.

Obviously one could not sit these out. But I didn't want to seem like I was eager to dance to such... well... rubbish. So I hemmed and hawwed and generally stalled. Then Daft Punk came on. How could I miss that? Up I went like a shot. Then I did my white guy dance. Aka; dancing with no skill.

As I shuffled and bobbed crudely to the music, I realized, once more, how uncomfortable I was among all these surprisingly talented teenage dancers.

Little know fact about me, if in a large group, al la prom; the closer it gets to midnight, the more like a drunk I will seem.

Skip forward a bit, it's about 9 now. I am now, spontaneously, and unexpectedly, a dancer. My skills were furious, my moves were curious, my rhymes were injurious. Okay, so there were no rhymes. I wasn't a rapper, just a dancer.

Of on a ego trip here. I was seriously good! Like wow, I rocked. There was dance off, and I stood too the side and did nothing at all. Other then that though, I just let the beat flow through, and when my date, for a brief moment of two songs, actually started to mimic my dance moves; it was dancvana. (That's dance and Nirvana combined for those of you who need it spelled out.) I had not a care in the world, and my moves were slick. I was no Micheal Jackson, but if you had cut back five years, past me would have been staring in envy at present me. If you get my drift.

BACK ON TRACK! Anyway, so I had spontaneously become a good dancer. Even when we took five and sat back at our table, at least one part of my dancer anatomy would be keeping time with the music, be it my leg, my hand, or my head. I was in the zone. I was in control. The world was my oyster, and I was on a sea food binge.

Cut forward another hour. The drunkenness is now in full force. Two hours ago, I had asked my date how long she planned to stay, she had said till the end, in my mind I had shuddered. Now it was 10, and the prom was only scheduled till 11. I was genuinely not looking forward to having to quit.

I would stand with my date, and just dance. Sometimes no one would be around us. If past me had been there, he would have made a trip to the snack table while wishing he didn't know me. Past me was a bit of a coward.

At this point, I decided to really let loose. My tie came off, and found it's way onto my head. I had planned to whip my head around and make like a propeller, but visions of my tie flying off and landing on some teenage girl kept that from happening. Still, it was on my head. My collar was up, and my top button was undone.

By now, I could tell I was fully in my 'He looks drunk' stage. I was loving it too. I danced through four songs in a row. Non stop. I was on a roll. Then I found out that we were leaving at 10:30. I felt a twinge of regret. I downed half a can of sprite in one go, and then left the hall giggling.

What a night!

So remember, if you have Arlin to a party, he will get increasingly weird the later it gets. You have been warned. However, there most be a sizable group for this effect to take place. Among a small group, Arlin will remain completely sober. Frankly, I'm begining to wonder if I feed off other peoples party joy like alcohol.

Iron Values

2008-11-03T13:50:00.001-07:00

Howdy non-existent readers! Unless of course your from the future and reading this after the fact, at which point, just howdy. Anyway, I was suffering over the political quagmire that is the internet as we approach the 2008 American presidential elections and have come to conclusion that I thought would be just perfect for this blog.

Namely, another problem that crops up while we try to come to terms with our many differences, that problem being; our inability to admit or even fathom that were wrong.

Obviously not everyone is guilty of this, but it seems that we put a unfair burden on the champions of our viewpoints to never back down or even waver, and then we look to them and say ‘well they haven’t backed down so neither will I’. Really that seems like a vicious cycle to me. Our expectations our what keeps them from changing, and then we don’t change because they don’t.

As I said earlier, getting people who don’t share our beliefs to look at them is a good way to find flaws you may have missed. But that only works if we can admit that we were wrong, even in a small way. I think that it’s important for all of us to understand that many many of our beliefs and values have been created by other humans, and humans, in their nature, are imperfect beings. As such, we should always keep in mind that these beliefs and values are not iron clad and 100% flawless.

The reception of voice

2008-09-30T19:48:00.004-07:00

One of the fundamental parts of working together with people of varying mindsets is that both parties need to have the ability to listen to the other party. This seemingly simple action appears to be rapidly becoming a lost art in todays world. People seem unable to look across the invisible yet invincible lines they draw and see the other party as anything but a band of lying filthy mongrels.

Case in point, on the radio the other day I was listening to a interview with a lady who had apparently written a book and she was saying, on national radio, that anyone who voted for the other party in our national elections should be held responsible for their poor judgment and for the future turmoil and crisis that it would bring to the country.

First Impression: What the crap?
Second Impression: Are you kidding me? This is jaw dropping nuts!

Seriously though, read that again if you didn't get it the first time around. She wanted people to be held responsible for their political votes as though it was criminal offense. Now to be fair, it is true that those who elected Hitler, probably should have seen a little something coming (surprisingly, she compared the people who would vote other party as just such people), but we has human kind seem to be rather remarkably short sighted. We build our house on fault lines and in the shadow of volcanoes and then when people come by and tell us, "Hey guys, you may want to move for a bit. Things could get ugly." we say, "This house has been here for fifty years and it will be here for fifty years more!" Then the fault line shifts and obliterates fifty years of progress. Shocking.

We we get engrossed in our own ideologies, we tend to ignore any and all cries that something may be afoot. At times the best thing we can do is go to someone who we disagree with most if not all of the time and ask them, hey do you see anything wrong with what I'm doing? Obviously, be prepared for the answer, cause it isn't going to be pretty. The advantage of this is they don't see your world through rose coloured glasses, unlike yourself, but the downside is, they may hate you, and probably won't take such mind opening obersavtions from you as well as you do.

Generally the point I'm trying to get across, is we can be so blinded by our own dream world that we forget other people have perfectly working eyes and dream worlds of their own. If you get enough people to look at your situation from enough angles, the flaws in it will become more apparent. After finding said flaws you can take steps to correcting them.

A note to everyone though, just to get the ball rolling. We are? Human. What are humans (most of the time)? Imperfect. We make? Mistakes. What does this all mean? Any system made my human hands, and dream dreamed by a human mind, will have FLAWS. Deal with it. But what can we do? Rise up to the challenge, just becasue we are imperfect doesn't mean we have to be happy with that fate.

Open my Mouth

2008-09-28T20:37:00.001-07:00

Chances are no one will read this first post for a very long time, considering I have no actual connections as of yet. Hopefully as the days go on that will change and I will get readers (hopefully they may even like what they read). In light of that possible eventuality, its my intent to make this first post a sort of mission statement.

I want this blog to be, in the most part, a place where I and the readers try to bridge certain gaps that exist in the world. I want us to realize that no matter how far apart our ideologies may be, if we dig far enough we can find common ground. I am not naive enough to say that it will be easy, nor am I optimistic enough to say that talking solves all issues. Those statements in and of themselves may quite possibly make gaps between people who may stumble across this, but such is life.

My hopes for finding this common ground is that we can find ways to move forward together with a sort of grudging respect as opposed to the us and them mentality that seems prevalent in our world these days. They only way for us to move together as a world, or a nation, or a city, or even a family, is to find ways to work together. I want to help us find those ways to work together, and thus is the purpose of my blog, to build up each other and find ways to advance towards our dreams together.

I can tell, just by reading that post, that I'm probably going to fail. But one must keep in mind, we are all human, and regardless of your thoughts on humanity you all know that we make mistakes, we fall short of our dreams. Its the bits that happen after that, that we may differ on, like whether or not one can get up from certain errors on their own, or whether we should extend every effort we can to get them up. It happens, we disagree. Don't deny that, cause if you do, your disagreeing with me. Gad's such logic is most useful, but hopefully it won't have a place in this blog except for my occasional jibe.

Since I seem unable to marshal my thoughts, lets have a recap.

What am I doing: Trying to get people from all sides of every issues to find ways to work together. OR Helping people get along.

Why am I doing it: I feel that all humans are worth the time it takes to help them. Regardless of the belief, race or colour.

How will I fall short: I am human, and prone to folly. I will have opinions, as will any readers, and in some cases, the voids between to side will be to wide for me to gap.

So now I shall begin... more or less.