Dig List

I've noticed that this blog seems to have taken a pretty serious tone since its inception. So I thought I'd lighten things up a little and talk about some things that I'm digging lately. I'm hoping that this will become a trend, so let's just call this my first official Dig List:

1. Role Models - Just watched this movie a few days ago, and it had me laughing pretty hard through most of it. Any movie that can do this is a winner in my book
2. California - The state is currently in the midst of a big push to legalize marijuana as part of the solution to its financial crisis. Legislation has been introduced, and the bill that would legalize weed is currently in the petition phase. If enough signatures are acquired, California residents could be voting on the bill in the not too distant future. Reports vary, but everybody seems to agree that a lot of money (billions) could be made by selling and taxing weed. Consider how many more billions state and federal agencies could save if they didn't have to worry about enforcing marijuana laws, and prosecuting and jailing those who break them. Now consider how many more billions could be generated through a new kind of marijuana-tourism (head shops, marijuana cafes, etc.) in California. Listen, I don't care if you smoke or not, but I feel like this is a pretty tough argument to beat. Money is a huge issue right now, and I read recently that 6 out of 10 people on the West coast favor some sort of legalization. I think that if something like this is passed in California, it will create a great deal of momentum for other states to slowly begin falling in line, and hopefully encourage the federal government to do so eventually. I'm not trying to start a debate here, but I honestly believe that proper, more realistic and honest education about marijuana coupled with fair taxation could be extremely beneficial - both to our country in a financial sense, as well as to current and future smokers. If you're interested in learning more, I suggest you start here: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7814
   
3. President Obama - He just signed a bill lifting the ban of federal funding on stem cell research. With federal money finally going into this extremely important field of study, I think we can expect to start seeing some great and exciting things happening in the medical field in the next few years.
   
4. Muziic - I just found this program tonight, and I'm already loving it. The program opens on your desktop, and connects directly to youtube's server. This allows you to search for and play any song or video on youtube without ever even opening the actual website. Basically, this is like having every song or video you ever wanted on your itunes, and it's pretty awesome. I recommend you check it out, becuase I think it's definitely going to catch on. http://www.muziic.com/
   

Changin'

There is a lot I could say to preface this, but let's just get to the point: I'm tired of feeling like I'm not in control of my life. Yes, there are some things that I can't control that cause me some pain and worry. But that's just it...I can't control them. All I can do is hope that they'll work out, and try to make some changes that might make it easier for that to happen. But in the meantime, I refuse to just sit back and wait and bother myself with things that other people may not care about at all. So I'm taking control starting now. I'm going to start doing all my homework, going to all my classes, and doing my best to do the right thing for myself, and my friends when they work into the equation. No more putting things off endlessly when I could just as easily complete them in five minutes and be done, because those things just end up piling up and causing me unnecessary stress.

I've messed up enough already to be honest...academically, legally, personally. And I don't want to anymore. So it's time to start doing things the right way, and hope that some of the things I have messed up can be salvaged.

I'm not gonna lie, it's gonna be tough to exact this sort of change when nothing else is really changing. Which I guess just means that what needs to change is me, and my attitude.

I'm getting my shit together and turning it around. I'm ready to feel like my life is on track again.

Summer Dreamin'

I went to a bonfire tonight, and I gotta say, it pretty much just got me real jacked up for camp. I love camp for a lot of reasons, which I will probably write about sometime later here. But right now I'm just feeling pretty excited for it, and summer in general.

I'm loving this weather too. It's amazing how much a few nice days can do.

Action

I reread my post from last night, and it sorta bothered me a bit. I think this is mostly because it seemed a little whiny to me, and wasn't really very constructive. Yes, I am feeling pretty uncertain about a lot of things in my life right now. I don't know what I want exactly, or what the future holds. And I'm not gonna lie, it can all add up to be pretty daunting sometimes. But I don't want to become too passive in life. Even if everything seems up in the air, there are some things that I can tug on a little to try to bring them down, or at least try to make sense of them.

I need to start taking action more in my own life. I need to stop avoiding some things and issues, and I need to stop procrastinating on others.

I do not want to let my life pass me by while I wait to have it figured out. I want to constantly be exploring and discovering new things, people, ideas, and places.

Basically, I don't want to be one of those people who just sits back and lets life happen to them. I want to happen to life.

Hmmm

I actually had several ideas for what to write about tonight. But nothing really seemed to sound right to me. This doesn't either if we're being honest, so I'm not really sure why I'm posting it. I just feel like I have too much swirling around in my head right now to slow it down enough to focus on one thing. Even if I could, I don't really know that I feel certain enough about anything to write about it right now. I honestly just don't know what I want, or what I want to do with my life. The future freaks me out more every day. It would take less than the fingers on one hand to count the things that I feel sure of, and I don't even know how to handle or approach some of those. I feel like a lot is up in the air at this point, and I don't know when it will come down, or how it will land.

This has mostly just been me venting, so if you read it all, thanks. I just feel frustrated with all this uncertainty right now. Not that uncertainty is a bad thing - if everything in life were certain, it wouldn't be too exciting at all. I think I could just use a little less of it.