The 15 Warnings Signs of Impending Tyranny

As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:

1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.

2. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.

3. Call anyone who opposes them “enemies.”

4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them “deceitful” and “scum.” 

5. Hold few if any press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements. 

6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.

7. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against them.

8. Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.

9. Threaten mass deportations, registries of religious minorities, and the banning of refugees.

10. Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such as labor unions and opposition parties.

11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority

12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public.

13. Put generals into top civilian posts 

14. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators.

15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.

Getting Close to Graduation

So I know that this blog is somewhat of a journal of my life and while in the past I was filling it to fill it, talking about things of little significance, I feel something of an obligation to my future self to preserve this thing as a book of memories to look back upon.

I am getting close (a few months) to graduating with a degree in Advertising from Grand Valley State University.  I want to talk a little about my GVSU experience.  I have met some amazing people and had interesting experiences.  I have opened my mind to new things.

As I sit here in the brand new library that GVSU has built I enjoy the generosity of the incredible donors that made this possible.  Free market capitalism is an incredible thing when the most successful people are willing to share with everyone else in the form of patronizing institutions like GVSU.

I am really hoping to get a great internship which will lead me to a great job after graduation. I am willing to move around, but a big motivating factor is a high salary and a fun environment.

Listening to this awesome song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pecj5GGjQi8

Religion

So this is just a random idea.  What if some religious cult that had like 50-X00 members was the only religious body that actually "got it right"?  Or even if the Pastafarians(look 'em up!) were the ones that were right about religion.  Can you imagine hell as being filled with a crap ton of people, good and bad, and heaven is like an awkward pool party with something like 25 people standing around talking about how they can convince more people to see the truth in the Flying Spaghetti Monster so they can join the super lame party.

Just a thought.

Pottery Barn

Going to do some temporary work at Pottery Barn starting next week.  Excited.

Concussion

Hey.  I wanted to remember a major life event that happened two weeks ago today.  Unfortunately on the day of and on subsequent days I was unable to really use the computer.  I had a concussion.  My first and hopefully last.  It's very upsetting being unable to do certain things and remember certain things.  I'm getting rapidly better but I just hope that I will make a full recovery.  I'm speaking with the Spectrum Health Post Cuncussive Clinic and Mild Brain Injury Clinic about treatment soon.  I'll keep you updated.

The future

As I fall asleep tonight, I'm filled with self doubt.  Yes this is posted at 6am.  I'm going to bed late.    Where will I be in 10 years?  Will I be happy?  I just don't know.  I am thinking about the future more and more as I age, not that I'm particularly 'aged', but still.  I wish that I blogged more often.  I'm doing a lot of facebooking now.  Perhaps I will shift more to this in the near future.  I'll just have to think about it more.  Does anyone still read this?  I hope so.

Steve Jobs article

This is a great article.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/22/tech/innovation/jobs-excerpt-customer-service/index.html

Penn State Thing

Well.  I wanted to take a minute today to talk about the whole Penn State thing.  It's disappointing to say the least that all of this is happening.  I wish that Joe Paterno had gone to the police when this originally happened.  It would have prevented a huge amount of grief on his part.

Steve Jobs' Death

Saddened by the news. Love this quote.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple Inc.

Heading to GVSU

So I'm going to GVSU this fall.  Got in!

Zhengs left for China

Well Fan and Peter just left.  Lately, my blog posts are so rare that they seem to only occur at major points. I suppose you could call this a major point in the scope of this year at least.  They are headed back to Fuzhou until August 31 at which point they will return.  I am going to miss them a lot and I regret that I won't be able to see them on a daily basis anymore.  I have gained so much knowledge in this past year and I'm going to miss having them around. (Wait, I've already said that, right?)  It needs to be said multiple times.
The baby of course went with them.  I took pictures of them as they were packing up.  I helped them get the bags to the MetroCar.  I reminded them to take everything off of the porch.  A few minutes ago I heard someone bounding up the steps and I ran out to the stairwell hoping they forgot something.  Nothing.  I suppose my imagination must have gotten the better of me.  Wishful thinking perhaps.  Well they should arrive within two days and I will email them now and be ready to skype them later.

Trois

Today was a significant day, and I didn't want to forget it.  Started at around 6:30 and ended at 11:30.

First Sail of the year

Well last weekend, my parents, the Zhengs(my Chinese exchange student friends), and I decided to go sailing on celebration.  It was the first sail of the year and a lot of fun because the Zhengs had never gone sailing.  After going sailing we had a light/late lunch at the formal grille.  Then we went back to the dock and sat around and played cards for a while before going to the pool where we swam for around 45 minutes before eating dinner at the dock party/meeting.  Overall it was a lot of fun!

My Sister's Birthday!

Happy birthday to my sister.

Today

So I haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to update everyone.  Right now I'm really sick with a bad cold.  Earth Day is coming up and I wanted to tell you about that.  It's 82 degrees out right now.  Dying of heat stroke but at least the heat seems to have cleared my sinuses.

Long Time, No Post

Well it's been a long time since I've posted.  I have noticed that since I began mico-blogging on Facebook, I really haven't used BOJ as much to express my thoughts.  I want to continue doing that.  I have just gotten used to doing less and less in terms of posting.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas.  I hope that you have a happy holiday season!  I know that I have not been writing very much.  Since September I have turned 20(Nov) and have been doing a lot of studying.  My New Year's resolution is really to make a commitment to working harder and writing more here.

Neglect and the job hunt

I'm sorry.  Frankly to those of you who check this on a regular basis, I have been failing you for a few months now.  I have been very infrequent with m postings on here.  I enjoy writing, but I have been pretty busy with the apartment and school.  I'm looking for a job right now, so that's taking up time as well.  The problem is that I need a job that doesn't involve food service and is preferably in an office environment.  I'm not looking for a job that pays under $10 per hour, and it's not going to be something demeaning like standing outside of a business jumping up and down to get peoples' attention.  I have been enjoying fall.  Check out my post about my trip to Cook's Dairy Farm, Ashton's Orchard, and Middleton's Berry Farm.

My trip to the country part two

This is a continuation of the story that I started yesterday.  I decided to break it up because it was so long.

Well we drove into Middleton's and I noticed a couple that looked about retirement age.  They advised me that there were no pre-picked berries and that I would have to pick the raspberries myself.  Obviously I was not going to do this in the rain so I decided to buy some pie pumpkins and some green peppers.  The green peppers that I picked out were 3 for a dollar and the pie pumpkins that I picked out were 1 dollar each.  I actually cut up one of the pumpkins today.  It was delicious.

After Middleton's, we headed back to Cook's Farm Dairy to pick up a half gallon of ice cream to take home with us.  Both my parents and I ended up buying a half gallon of Pumpkin Crunch.  That ice cream was the fluffiest ice cream that I have ever tasted.  Well after that we were going to head home, but I suggested that we drive around for a bit, just to enjoy the drive.

We passed a road that I recognized the name of, and I remarked upon that, and my dad said that he also remembered that name.  We turned down the road and realized that some friends of ours live on that road.  We had a brief debate in the car whether to drive up their driveway and ring the doorbell and ultimately decided to do so.  I got out of the car and rang their doorbell and sure enough the wife was home.  She invited us in, and we asked to make sure that we were not being a nuisance by just dropping in unannounced(we live so far away from them that it's rare that we see them).  She said that she was just reading a book and that we should come in.  So we came in and chatted for a good hour.  Her husband and son came home at that point and we explained that we were in the neighborhood.

We learned from the son that some mutual friends of ours were also going to be briefly stopping by, so someone went out for pizza and we had an impromptu pizza party at their house.  Our mutual friends eventually had to leave, and we stayed around to chat.  We had a great time until it became time to head home.  By that time it was after 9, so it really was a full day out in the country.  Since I don't get out of my apartment that often, I really cherish little trips that those.

I'll keep you posted on my activities.

My Trip to the country

So I have been bugging my parents for a while now to take me to Cook's Dairy Farm in Ortonville, MI.  Since I don't drive as I'm sure you know, I rely on family and friends to take me places.  It's annoying but as the French say "C'est la vie!".  I asked my mom if I we could go to both Cook's and an apple orchard that I had found, and naturally she said pick one or the other, so I picked Cook's.  The reason is that there is an apple orchard just one mile from Cook's, so we were able to go to both.  The apple orchard that I originally picked to go to was something like 20 miles away.  I'm pretty happy that I was able to find this one.

So after we went to Cook's we stopped by the apple orchard which was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were inside the apple orchard(Ashton's).  When it was time to go, we scurried to the car and began to leave.  I remember having heard about a berry farm nearby so I inquired about one.  I was told that it was called Middleton's and it was just a few miles away.

I got directions, and we headed off.  We drove for a few miles, and then we weren't sure where to go because the directions that the lady in Ashton's weren't totally clear.  Since my dad's Buick Lucerne is equipped with OnStar, we hit the blue OnStar button and I told the advisor that we were looking for a berry farm in the area.  He asked if I had the name of it.  I told him that I couldn't remember the name.  He told us that we were literally right next to it.

Stay tuned for part two of this story tomorrow.