Barnum Statements

I had a friend who was one of the brightest people I have ever met who read her horoscope everyday, she claimed they were accurate. I suspect she was having some fun at my expense given how bright she was, I can't believe she really put stock in horoscopes.

Horoscopes like most personality profiles are nothing more than Barnum statements. Which are statements of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning although the statements themselves apply to many people. This effect was named after nonother than P. T. Barnum, who of course said "There is a sucker born every minute".

Examples of typical Barnum statements are:

• You have a great need for other people to like and admire you
• At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
• You tend to be too self critical
• You’re an independent and creative thinker
• You do not accept what others tell you to believe
• Some of your goals seem to be a little unrealistic

The list goes on and on and on.

These types of statements apply to most everyone and of course people see themselves within such statements. Barnum statements are used by psychics and astrologers of all creeds to great success, mostly because people want to believe in such rubbish.

Literally astrology can be defined as the system of beliefs in which knowledge of the relative positions of celestial bodies is used to interpret, predict and organize information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters.

The astrological charts which modern astrologers use are based upon Ptolemaic tables, which is funny, because Ptolemy left out one of the original signs of the Zodiac which the Babylonians orginally included in their charts when they created this bullshit 4300 years ago...the other really funny thing about these tables, is that they are still used today...if the stars really did have magical effects on our lives, the predictors would still be wrong as their charts have not been updated to reflect the 5 days difference between where stars actually are versus where the charts say they are....oh and for those people who love their newspaper/website horoscope you might be shocked to know these are now created by software which uses random Barnum statements.

Megan Fox - The New Angelina?

I was hanging out with the girls at the spa, when the topic of Megan Fox came up, and one woman commented how everyone thought Megan Fox was the new Angelina Jolie...I normally could give a fuck about such things...but this is so stupid even I need to comment.

Lets compare the two...

Angelina Jolie won a best actress oscar in 2000 and was nominated for another in 2009, shes won 3 Golden Globes, and Megan Fox has...well not...

Angelina Jolie has appeared in over 30 films, several critically acclaimed...Megan Fox was in Transformers.

Megan Fox dated Justin Green...this should pretty much say all that there is. Oh ya, Angelina Jolie hangs out with Brad Pitt...

Angelina also does a little charity work with the UN as a special ambassador...while Megan Fox I hear has seen a globe once.

And really, lets be honest, woman 30+ are way sexier and appealing than 20 somethings...in all cases...

Dreams

All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,
Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people,
For they dream their dreams with open eyes,
And make them come true.

-D.H.Lawrence

Regrets

My son often brings up hard subjects, he asked me the other day if I had any regrets. Pretty hard question coming from a 7 year old!

I think over the last 3 years I have a couple of pretty major regrets, that are related. I regret wasting so much of my life behind the computer. I think its fair to say I developed a pretty bad video game addiction which sucked away years of my life. I of course had a great justification for my addiction, 'escapism'...getting away from lifes very real and very large stresses. Of course, hiding from lifes problems makes the problems worse not better.

I think the allure of game addiction is strong, and in the end it does nothing but damage ones life and relationships. I have blown up thousands of internet spaceships, conquered hundreds of dungeons...and....so fucking what?! All of those victories and losses mean nothing...I can say all of that time was truly wasted, I have not one thing to show for all of the time I spent wasting away behind the computer, not one.

The other real regret I have is that I have been so passive in my life. I have spent years waiting around for life to happen to me rather than working towards the life I want.

I am the king of self justification, always blaming other peoples actions or inactions for me not working towards the life I want. I know alot of people do the same, blaming their own actions or more correctly inactions on what others do or dont do, its always someone elses fault!!! Frankly its bullshit...if you want something out of life, you need to go after it and work on it...

Music

Remember when bands put out great albums? Like the guys pictures above who put out album after album of awesome tunes. Perhaps Im just getting old, but where are the new epic albums? I hear a new song and think thats's pretty good, then I check out the album and find it has one or two good songs and the rest...well meh!

Its both fun and sad to sit around and chat music with people of my generation, listening to some of those old great bands. I wonder if I am just missing the point with new artists...but I do like specific songs, just not whole albums...well mostly not even 1/2 an album.

I guess I am really showing my age by even calling it an album!! Talking music is still one of my absolulte favorite things.

Brake Lights

I grew up in the far north in Canada, with the closest town 90 minutes away. We often found ourselves driving on the old mountain road alone, not seeing another car for the entire trip. Late at night when driving, it was always sort of a relief seeing brake lights of a car ahead, knowing that we weren't the only ones out there.

I was driving home late one night last week, and the roads were very quiet, ahead of me I could see the brake lights of another car in the distance. For a brief second a wave of comfort fell over me...I had the same feeling which I had as a child seeing brake lights in the distance. It was a very nice feeling, that safety one feels in childhood...it was a flicker then gone...it put me in a good mood...the speeding ticket I had gotten earlier in the evening entirely forgotten.

The feelings of childhood are so special...its a shame we don't see it until we are so much older.

Raven Hair

Raven haired beauty
Bright blue eyes, I cannot meet her gaze
Asking hard questions

Play ground at night, posing for a picture
She won't smile
Ever so serious
It turns out better this way
A bottle of wine
Morning caught us unaware

Old wounds still bleed
Trust again?
Those blue eyes make it hard to resist
Her perfume on my clothes
here I go
again...