This girl needs to be locked up ... in Azkaban

Ignorance.

Ignorance is something that is going to be remembered as one of the primary causes of the downfall of our civilization. Think about it. 99.9% of conflict on this earth is a derivative of cultural and religious difference and intolerance. People generate and maintain their own misguided opinions without even beginning to do the necessary research to determine if what they think even makes sense.

I saw a prime example of that today. If you are a Harry Potter fan, proceed with caution. This is going to upset you.

Before I continue, it is important to note that I am a fan of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I grew up with the story, and the characters that embodied it. Having said that, I also want you to note that the opinions that I express in the sentences to follow are not harsh simply due to my bias towards the series, but due to the sheer ignorance of the comment I read on Yahoo answers just today. I’ll show it in a screen shot to give the full effect. It reads as follows:

This is upsetting on so many levels. 

Before I start ranting lets clear up the confusion for all of you muggles out there.  The first Harry Potter book was released approximately 8 years before the first Twilight book was. Also Sirius Black was not a werewolf … in the slightest. Not even close to a werewolf.  Yeah, that’s awkward. Probably shouldn’t have said all that on the Internet for millions to see. #badidea.

Here is where the source of my anger lies. I do not expect her to know all the differences between the two books.  Depending on her age, that is a completely legitimate question. But when you post things on the Internet, they last forever. It isn’t just something you can remove at your will. Comments like these are the going to be our downfall. Do your research before you write something. Make sure what you’re saying adds value to universe. Otherwise … just keep it to yourself.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

-Blaze 

Things like this shouldn’t happen.

I saw something disgusting today.

We are lucky. We as a developed society have the opportunity to bask in the glory of freedom. Our forefathers established our constitutions, our soldiers defended it, and therefore we as citizens of Canada, America and the rest of the developed world get to do the things we want to do, say the things we want to say, and act however we choose (within the stipulations of our respective laws) without facing repercussions. 

It couldn’t get much better and most days I feel like I couldn’t be any luckier. I feel like I have it pretty good. But today I saw something I wish I didn’t.

I was linked a video by a close friend. This video is rather old so I was surprised that I hadn’t seen it earlier. What I saw was shocking:

Wow. In America?. In North America?. In any free land? I can’t tell you I’ve ever seen anything like that before. I am sure it’s happened but fortunately for them it was never caught on video. What’s worse is that it wasn’t the fault of the security on duty. They were obviously ordered to stop the “demonstrations” by somebody of higher authority. They were just doing their job. But why is this somebody’s job?

Scenes like this is why it is so important for us as a society to stand up for our beliefs. There are rules. There are laws. But as citizens of a free land we deserve to have the opportunity to have our rights. So stand up for them.

Stand up for what’s important. Things like this shouldn’t happen.

-Blaze

Hey, thanks Cupid!

I don’t like Valentines Day.  

I am a guy, so there are all the normal guy reasons for not liking valentines: It’s impossible to find reservations, there are endless expectations and I hope you enjoy eating Kraft Dinner for a month because there goes half your paycheck.

But it goes deeper than that. I am not that cheap, and I am certainly not heartless .I just don’t buy into the mindless concept that love and relationships should be celebrated on one day.  

Valentines is meant to be a day where people have the opportunity to celebrate their relationships with the people that are special to them. Good idea right? Everyone likes to know they are important. Everyone likes to know that somebody cares. I don’t hate the idea. But I also didn’t hate the idea of communism. That worked out so well.

Here is the reality.  We have created this holiday where people who don’t have someone special in their lives feel alone and isolated and those who are lucky enough to have someone special in their lives get to spend a significant amount of money on chocolates, cards, teddy bears, dinners, etc. The list goes on. You’re welcome Hershey and Hallmark. You can pay your employees for another year.

Why can’t we just appreciate the people in our lives everyday and skip this Valentines garbage? Hershey’s and Hallmark is not the recipe for successful relationship.  Consumerism is taking over our lives. Stop the madness. Celebrate your life and the people in it everyday, not just one day in the middle of February.

-Blaze 

Hack me one more time … I dare you.

I had a bad day today.

I am a pretty optimistic person. I try to make the best of every situation but today was a horrible day. I had a rough shift at work, my car died (this time for good I think), and I fell down and ripped my favorite pair of jeans. But when all is said and done, I can live with all of those things. People have bad days. We brush things off and move along with our lives. But one thing happened today that I couldn’t move on from. One thing that crossed the line from mildly irritating to completely infuriating….

My twitter account got hacked … again.

All of those other things happen, and to be quite honest all of those other things are probably my own fault. I haven’t been getting enough sleep so work has been more difficult, I don’t take good care of my car so it was only a matter of time, and I should have been paying more attention before I tripped this morning.

But nothing pisses me off more than people hacking into my accounts. That twitter account is my account, not yours. Don’t touch it please. Yes, maybe I shouldn’t have clicked that link that read “Hey, so some real nasty things are being said about you here http://t.co/qK7syqa I can’t believe what was said”. That was probably a bad idea. But whatever, sue me for being curious, the Internet has never lied to me before. So I changed my password and the spam went away for a couple weeks, until today, when it happened again.

Why? Why twitter?

There is nothing worse than being that guy on Twitter. Nobody wants to be that guy. Nobody likes knowing that they are single handedly putting 60 + people in a bad mood. But on top of that, I get to hear about it all day long. I got 8 tweets asking me to stop and about 4 text messages advising me of how annoying and horrible I was being. Yeah like I am intentionally doing that. I promise you, I have better things to do with my time.

Attention hackers:

Leave me alone. Get a hobby. Go meet someone if you’re lonely. Join a club.

I don’t care what you do but you’re messing with my entire operation and I’d appreciate it if you just didn’t.

Thank you,

-Blaze

But what if you can?

“You can’t”

A familiar phrase. A very familiar phrase. A phrase that is so familiar that it is single handedly responsible for the failures of millions of people. Everyone’s heard that phrase at one point in their lives. We as a society are obsessed with the idea of failure. We want so badly to feel good about ourselves that we tear down others to bring a feeling of value to our own lives.

Some of you may be thinking, “ Speak for yourself, I don’t do that.”

You’re lying to yourself. Everyone does it in one-way or another.

We as a human race strive towards excellence. We want to be successful. That is a given. And somewhere, at some point in our lives we have spewed a negative, ignorant comment towards an individual simply so that we could feel better about ourselves. Everyone has said to their co-worker “congratulations on that promotion, you really deserve it” just before telling another co-worker “I deserved that promotion way more than John”. This negativity can stem from jealousy, fear, anxiety you name it.

I’ve seen this first hand. I’ve been on the sending end and I’ve been on the receiving end and it makes me laugh. What if Michael Jordan quit playing basketball after he was cut in his sophomore year of high school? What if Steve Jobs disappeared after being ousted from Apple in the 80s? What a different world this would be.

The point I’m trying to make is that there are probably 50 other Michael Jordans and Steve Jobs out there who didn’t make anything out of their lives because they listened to the negative energy that others generated. What a difference it would make if we all heard a little more of “you can”.

Spread a little positivity,

-Blaze

Being original

Societal expectations are important, don’t get me wrong. It’s important to have rules and guidelines to follow otherwise the world would just collapse into a fiery ring of chaos. But where does it stop? When is it appropriate for us as individuals to stop listening to others and begin listening to ourselves? We as a society have put up a wall. 

We have put up a block to anybody in this world who dares to be even a little bit different than everybody else. When was the last time you saw a CEO of a fortune 500 company with a sleeve of tattoos? When was the last time you saw a leader of a country be any younger than the age of 30?

Yeah … if you think of anyone let me know.

If it’s happened than it’s rare. But why should it be? Value is value regardless of how it’s packaged and the constraints that are put on us, as individuals to conform to the masses are countless. Even those who achieve brilliance who don’t fit the mold are pegged with an asterisk (you know those backhanded compliments, “He was an innovator, but very eccentric”). Great potential is often squandered by the unwritten code that was developed hundreds of years ago by a very small group of individuals. Yet a very large group of individuals are forced to abide by them or face ridicule.

It’s okay to play the game, everybody does. You say and do things you wouldn’t necessarily say and do in normal circumstances to gain acceptance. However, as a student of marketing, where appearance and overall impressions could not be more important, I’ve learned that value of not losing myself. Success is great but not at the expense of your own values. Following societal rules are at times important, but finding the ability to make your own are just as important.

Be original.

-Blaze