Well.. it's summer again and consequently also the time of the year when I actually do something other than read or study (I know it's come as a shock to some of you that I do things other than those two said activities). It is also the time of year when I pull out my camera, switch it to paparazzi mode, and start clicking away at anything that holds still long enough (which is for about 1/400th of a second in many cases).
The pictures that I am putting up currently are mostly from late May and early June. There may be a few from months upon months ago, but not many.
Anywho, I'm going to continue submitting recent miscellaneous photographs for your critique.
G'night all.

It has come to my attention, and I'm both surprised and disgusted at not noticing earlier, that our society as it exists today is coming under an influence so powerful it could literally force us into a collectivized country. We would no longer be the independent and free people that we are now, but instead, we would be blind altruists, living in complete and indivisible unity, barely knowing who we are because of the lack of focus we place upon ourselves. This would be the extreme form of altruism and collectivism acting together, involving the unquestionable self-sacrifice that would be required of all individuals. If we're not careful, that's what we could become.
The current morality of society involves placing others before oneself. It states that selfishness is bad and that we should always consider other people's lives before our own to be "good people." Of course it is important to respect every person's life (both material and conscious) and property, but it is neither necessary nor moral to sacrifice oneself, especially out of pressure to be a "good person." A person owes absolutely nothing to the rest of society. You can only "owe" another person if that person has done something worth your love. If that person is willing enough to earn that from you, it is fairly obvious that you have done something to earn theirs, thus balancing the equation. A person has no obligation to love those that have done nothing to earn it, even family members. One cannot just be born to earn love. It must be wanted, earned, and maintained.
Quite honestly, I am disgusted with the state of society. The hypocricy of many of those claiming themselves to be individuals. Free yourselves from the fallacy that has become morality lest our society fall under collectivism. If you cannot claim that you are free, not only physically, but consciously and if there is any doubt whatsoever that you are not... Become free. An individual does not have to fit the standards society presents us with. We do not have to sacrifice ourselves for humanity and yet we do it every day. It is freedom that is worth sacrifice. Of course, volunteerism is a different story, but even then must it be limited to a specific cause and a person must still retain rational self-interest.
It is the liberty we have to think and move about freely that allows us to be as independent as we are. So, imagine how honestly repulsive it is, seeing as we're free, to be moving in the opposite direction - towards a collective whole that could someday become our society.

Today, as many of us know, is President's Day. However, this date is less known for the fact that it is D-Day for the soldiers who landed on Iwo Jima February 19th, 1945. 6,825 U.S. Marines died throughout the thirty days of fighting and because of injuries that took place on the tiny speck of an island that would determine our advancement towards the Japanese mainland.
This island, though only 8 miles in length held 22,000 Japanese defenders. They were unlike any defenders the Marines had ever come across. They were not on the island, but in it. They had dug themselves into caves and tunnels throughout Iwo Jima's entirety.
Of the 22,000 original defenders, a little over 20,000 of them were killed in battle. The Marines had no idea of these numbers until the battle was over, however, because of the fact that the Japanese, whenever one of their soldiers were killed, dragged him back into the tunnels. The Marines could see their buddies dying all around them, but they could not see the Japanese.
Our conflicts with Japan have since been solved. And in the words of the memorial placed on Iwo Jima, may the sacrifices on Iwo Jima "always be remembered and never repeated."

I often think of self-control to be a valuable virtue, something to be proud of having..
something I should have had more of today.
But can a person really blame me, others went crazy within a few minutes. I held on as long as I could.. and broke out.
I'm sick of the immorality.
I'm sick of the lies.
But most of all, I'm sick of the want, the subconscious need every single bloody person seems to feel for depression and drama.

Why can we not celebrate the happiness of life?! Why do we wallow in the depressive state, shunning joy! Pure joy! Can't we all just try to be happy, to celebrate the happy things and not concentrate the sadness. Who would want a world filled with sadness?

Has anyone ever noticed that the most well-liked people are those who emanate joy? There's a reason for that. Joy is contagious. It is an indulgence in pure happiness. Depression is a state of hopelessness and sadness.
One is healthy, renewing..
One is unhealthy, exhausting..
Why is it then that we celebrate the latter so much more than the former?

So here 'tis. I'm updating this a little over six months after my first journal. Yes, I'm slow in these things sometimes (ok, more than sometimes; often).
It's almost the new year as most of us have probably been anticipating. There's not much to say at this moment other than it's just another year gone by. A lot happened this year, a lot to reflect upon, a lot to understand and perhaps analyze, and a lot that just happened that a person forgets about almost as soon as it happens. Nothing that is all that special needs to be mentioned at this time. Maybe in the next 33 hours I'll think of something, but most likely not.
We all think our lives are so special. That's a given from the day we're born. We all think we matter so much, but we come to realize that not that many people care (not that many in comparison to the other 6.5 billion other people out there). And yet, we continue to think we are special, that somehow, we are different from the others, that we'll stand out. Each person is their own hero among the rest. Each person is that red tulip among the field of yellow. But each person is also that yellow tulip among all the others with that one red blaring out. But, being human, we don't often look at it that way. We see ourselves and the rest of the world. We see the vague faces of the people we know, then the mass of the rest of the population. When we all think that we matter so much, we do, to ourselves; perhaps we don't to the rest of the world, but we matter to ourselves and that's how we get the will to move on, because we matter, because we love ourselves for who we are.
So, for this new year, realize that you are special, just like everybody else. Everybody matters in the chain of events on this earth. They may be only vague shapes and shadows in the midst of life, but they're there and we won't know they're there until we've met them.