Oops.

I booked myself for one night less than I need at the hostel. How likely is it that my iq is actually negative? I guess I'm bunking in the storage shed (it's a victorian cottage too, just full of cleaning supplies and a cot). How did I do that? So I think I'll stay up all night, since that is more appealing than unfolding a little cot. I am excited to stay up all night, work all day tomorrow for the last day of paint crew, and then bus home to oakland. It's the kind of mind meltingly grueling thing I usually do to mark transitions.

In other news, I live somewhere! I have a roommate and a housemate and a kitchen and it's in the suburbs. I have issues with the suburbs, but these are the overrun-with-students suburbs and I'll just have to cope.

Conspiracy Theory 4

Why are americans fat? "Leisure and surplus" is the automatic response, but in a way we have had those things since the industrial revolution and people were never as fat as they are now. My real theory about this is that food is nutritionally bereft and people need to consume more calories for the same amount of nutrients, but my conspiracy theory is that something is going to go down, something huge. We have the same amount(ish) of food as our parents, but we are gaining weight like crazy. Poor people, everyone, even movie stars look fatter than people in movies from the 1990s and earlier. Collectively, we can take on a huge famine. I don't know if the collective unconscious is promoting this idea, or if corporations are subtly suggesting it to us, but there it is. If a pound of fat has enough calories to live for 2 days, and we are an average of (totally guessing) 20 lbs overweight, that is almost a month and a half of extra survival. Getting people to store their own emergency rations, in their bodies, means the national budget does not have to do so. The other benefit is that, Soylent Green aside, no other nation or rebels can seize our rations for themselves.

Conspiracy Theory 3

I have a bunch of theories, that I would be shocked if they were true but are nonetheless compelling to me. I will only blog ones I have thought of myself, but of course a number of people may have thought of them independent of me.

There is a slogan, "religion is the opiate of the masses" meaning, of course, that people will permit their leaders and society to have less than ideal conditions because of 1) the ideal conditions available in the afterlife and 2) the moral value placed on submission and other tools of oppression.

But if you think about it, not that many people are religious. Everyone I know is "raised ___________ but really _agnostic/athiest/spiritual not religious_". So, I think drugs are the opiate of the masses, although that is not much of a revelation and is definitely not an appealing slogan.

When you think about it, who uses recreational drugs? Young people, counterculture people, creative people, as well as People With Issues. They all neatly self medicate. Thus, the situation is bearable and no social action needs to be taken.

Also, drugs are poison, that is the whole way they work. I don't care if you think taking your brain out of commission using chemicals is fine because you have chosen a natural source. Your lungs need fresh air, and that is all. One way you can check if something is good for you: if someone did it -to- you, would it be torture? (actually, after thinking about it for a second that is not a very good check.)

Everyone knows someone who accesses their creativity through recreational drugs, and people tell me of their really artistic friend who would just be nothing without mushrooms or whatever. Maybe, if you aren't creative in your natural state, you are just not a creative person. There are a lot of other important jobs, such as night manager of ihop, or policeman, that you might be quite suited for. And you don't have to poison yourself to do them!

I don't know- coping is important, but also important is keeping yourself in the best condition possible. What I'm trying to say, is I am going to apply for a job at a head shop. It's evangeltastic.

You ain't ever got ta go in your wallet, long as I got rubber band banks in my pocket

Go watch the music video or you won't know what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoVpmAdvT_Q

I feel bad for liking this song, because what about self sufficiency and cindarella complexes and feminism? A lot of rap songs imply that women are whores, but I dismiss it as the women in rappers' lives are more parasitic than not; it doesn't have anything to do with me or the women I know. However. This song makes being parasitic sound dreamy and lovely and enviable.

Because I get to take care of my own self, and it is quite stressful.

And when men ask me out (or, not even only men- I got flirted with by someone who when I laughed at him and asked his age he lied upwards and came up with 14. I almost went and got him a packet of crayons) when I am cashiering (they are generally stoned. Or hobos. Or stoned hobos.) they are never appealing famous men. In fact there is rather a shortage of those in santa cruz.

I am becoming more and more anti capitalist. I think the inheritedness of wealth is the main concern I have. I adore my immigrant coworkers, because look! They hiked across a desert (well, one of them has) in order to make minimum wage at a pretty boring job with not that much opportunity for advancement. They can profit from capitalism and I don't mind, but as for the spoiled students I am about to encounter again in september? But at the same time I know that it's evolution to try and make the world as smooth a place for your offspring as possible.