Irrelevance Glorified

Click here to see the pictures of my trip to Japan in December of 2003/January 2004.

Click here too see some pictures of a camping trip I took in 2002.

Well, after a long delay, pictures are back. Here are some of my pictures from my trip to Europe in 2001.

On Flickr….

(note : originally written in 2003)

This is perhaps one of my most deep-seated, irrational hates. The slightest mention of Michigan may initiate a torrent of swear words from my mouth. Sometimes I drive by a street by that accursed name and it will illicit a large amount of bad vibage from my person. People who don’t know of my passionate loathing for Michigan are often surprised, sometimes astonished, and mostly amused when they (usually unknowingly) walk right into the path of one of my tirades by mentioning Michigan. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 2000)

If you have been watching TV at all lately, you will have no doubt seen “The Truth” ads that air quite frequently. As a result of the numerous lawsuits brought against “Big Tobacco”, they are forced to fund anti-youth smoking commercials that will show us the error of our ways. Sure, information is good. And sure, underage smoking is bad. But these commercials serve nothing but to piss me off and I think they will be effectively uneffective in discouraging teen smoking. More disquieting is my suspicion that they will undermine any progress we have made in combating youth smoking. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 2000)

There is a great bit of tension in the air between science and religion in the subject of evolution. The sad thing is that there doesn’t need to be. The Pope and a number of other religious leaders agree that evolution is compatible with religion. And yet around the United States, school boards are opting for equal time between creationism and evolution. And I think this is horrid. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 1999)

I believe that the designers of these push-faucets meant well. They sleep well at night, believing themselves to be saving the environment and maybe even some baby seals or something. However, this invention has gone horribly wrong. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 1999)

I admit, I bet I’m a little biased on this one. Wait a second, I’m biased on every one of these. That’s the point. Anyways, my first year here at UIUC I lived on the 9th floor of Oglesby Hall, in which there are 12 floors. Incidentally, the elevators only go up to the 11th floor, so the poor 12th floor residents are fated to climb stairs anyway. But that’s another matter. Most University Residence Halls are a maximum of 4 floors high. Therefore, I feel it is only fair that residents of taller residence halls should only be be allowed to use the elevator to travel more than four floors. This is reasonable to me. However, I often found myself in the elevator, stopping at low floors, therefore delaying my appearance on the 9th. On the good side, whenever a person takes the elevator to a low floor, it unites the rest of the elevator. A definite bond is formed. It’s almost a sense of cameraderie, that hey “That guy was damn lazy!” It’s great. You have to be there. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 2000)

This is a touchy subject, and the cause of many a war throughout the years, but I thought I’d put my thoughts out there on this subject, because it is something I have thought about a lot, and is something which is very interesting. Before I begin, I will say where I am coming from. My ethnicity is Indian; I was raised a Hindu. It was never forced upon with me with any sort of fervor, and so I can’t say that I’m well-versed in it. Hinduism is an interesting religion and there are many similarities between it and other religions. It is not as polytheistic as many people would think. One thing that I have an impression of is that one can only be born into being a Hindu. You can’t just convert or anything. Which is why I’m hesitant to say I’m not; it looks like I am one whether I truly believe in it or not, according to one definition. But truly, I consider myself to be an agnostic. An agnostic is one who neither believes nor disbelieves in a God/Supernatural Deity, a middle road between theism and atheism. The reason is simply that there is no empirical proof that God (I will use this term and the pronoun He for convenience, although these are just conventions) exists, but if one did exist, it would certainly be within His power to make the seams of the universe invisible. I believe that both theism and atheism are leaps of faith that are somewhat arbitrary, no matter how soothing they are to the soul. Continue Reading »

(note : originally written in 1999)
Hate has a bad rap. We’re always being told that hate is horrible. It should be abolished. “Make Love, Not War!” (Personally, I thought that last one was just made up by people who wanted to get some) But you know, hate isn’t all that bad. It’s just so often misused. It’s often been said that Hate isn’t the opposite of Love, Apathy is. Which is very true, if you stop to think about it. In both Love and Hate, you feel very strong about something. The difference between Love and Hate is merely is one of a sign, not of magnitude. So if we treat them as scalars instead of the vectors that they actually are, they’re pretty much equal to each other. Man I’m such a dork for using an analogy like that. Anyways, one can easily see Hate is sometimes just Love going in the wrong direction. Continue Reading »