Story done!

I feel like I've finally made a huge step in my journey for light to which this blog is dedicated.  I have finally written an entire story.  Now, I'd written some before, but I hadn't ever ended one.

This took quite a while, it wasn't very long, but it takes way more work than one would think to actually write down a story.
Anyhow, it's going to start being edited so perhaps I'll start posting chapters on here! (there are only like 5 chapters)
Also, it's called: Final Stand.

The joy of reading...

This is so true, and awesome.

Food Storageness!

Today at church we had a talk on preparedness.  Like, food preparedness.  We as a family have a bunch of food storage in the basement, but we don't REALLY know how much, so I'm going to inventory it! (that may or may not be the right word at the right time... it sounds odd... but I think that it's right)
Anyhow, I'll keep you posted (You being the audience that I pretend is reading all of these... )

Determination

This summer I'm doing a chemistry class.  It's actually really pretty fun, but it takes me a long time to get through.  So, today I'm going to make my self do it.
I'm kind of odd; I can force myself to do things, but ONLY if I give myself STRICT guidelines, and an endpoint. So, my guidelines are, do set amount of chemistry (already decided) BEFORE getting on any social media. and if I make myself do that, it should work, since for some reason it does...

Now if I said, "do Chemistry for an hour" that wouldn't work since I would just get on Facebook or G+ and tell myself, "I'll work extra hard later in the hour"

So be determined and set exact goals, at least that's what I have to do for myself.

"A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop." Robert Hughes

And another good quote that also ties into what I said yesterday:
"A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough."
John Christian Bovee  

Perfection

Today I was thinking about something.
Perfection

In most religions, including mine, the final goal is perfection.  Because if you are perfect then you can always be at your happiest and so will everyone else because THEY are all perfect and so on.
Anyways, what I was thinking, everyone always says, "Don't worry about it, no one is perfect!" And that's what we think about our entire life, but you know what? Why on earth do we say that?!?!  Why should we try, if we have already decided that we can't be perfect? Well, that why I'd like to say: Be perfect!! Don't strive for near perfection, strive for perfection, be perfect! And if you have a day when you aren't perfect, the that's sad, you failed.  But that doesn't mean you can't get up and try again.If you EXPECT failure it will happen no matter what.  but if you expect perfection then IT will happen no matter what. So go, try!
 We can not expect to become perfect, if that is not our goal.


"Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection."
~Khalil Gibran 

"Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. "
Lord Chesterfield

BE PERFECT

Ray Bradbury

Another short post with an epic quote!

Ray Bradbury died today, but his books are still awesome. 

New Goal

Okay, I don't think that anyone actually reads this... but perhaps sometime people might start to do so... So I'm going to start posting something EVERY DAY. Yep. I'll do this for as long as I can, and it shall be awesomeness.

Of course this means that if the night comes and I haven't posted anything or if I can't think of anything I shall probably be posting pretty random stuff. 
BUT yeah, there will be stuff on here every day.
So for today, all I'm going to post is a really good quote I saw, at least it's an interesting quote. :D

Geek Towel Starwars day.

Well... I'm not actually "Geeky" or perhaps "Nerdy" enough (Is there really a difference? I mean really? ) to know about this, BUT I'm enough so to post about it after seeing it trending on Google Plus and seeing what it is.
Recently I listened to hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (which, by the way, is quite funny and, in my opinion, worth a read.) and so, apparently May twenty fifth (today) Is Towel Day.  So created because it's the anniversary of Douglass Addam's death. (if you don't know he's the writer of aforementioned book) and in this book he talks about towels and some uses of such.  For a few such uses see this picture. Anyways, yes, that's what day it is. BUT if you look at the title of this post it ALSO mentions star wars! Why is that? Because today is ALSO the anniversary of the release of Starwars: A New Hope which released may 25th 1977.  So yeah, according to Wikipedia It's Geek Pride Day . I could also talk about the one other holiday listed... but it's about disk-world, a series which I have yet to read. So I won't.
Anyways, I thought that this day deserved a blog post, because it's awesome. :D
(and if it's not may 25th anymore... then pretend)

Grand Strategy

Before you read this you have to know a definition, this definition is Grand Strategy.  it basically means the strategy that people have about the direction for the country globally. 
There are four main ones in use in America now.
Primacy, Cooperative security, selective engagement, and Neo Isolationism.
Primacy is the idea That America should be the super power it is today, but that it should go further and whenever anyone needs help we should help them.  This Ideal supports treaties and alliances like NATO (which requires us to help the member countries if they are attacked).  The main believers in this are die hard republicans and others like such.  So this takes to heart the idea of spreading democracy to the world.
Cooperative security is the next level "down" this group wishes to have alliances with all nations and be in a lot of places, but not be EVERYWHERE protecting everyone, many more people believe in this strategy than primacy.  In this we would protect people if we like them or have interests there.
Selective engagement is basically when we only go into a country with military if we have people there, (or other things like businesses or other interests) 
Neo Isolationism is the easiest to understand: Isolation. Stay in America, don't go anywhere, focus on US.
So with that short, badly worded summary, here's the essay. :D

Here is my grand strategy.  If you disagree (which I'm sure that in someway you will)  You should say so in the comments, since that would be cool!

What grand strategy do I believe in?  Well, this is complicated, I believe somewhat in Neo-Isolationism, but I don’t want to completely cut ourselves off from the world.  So maybe selective engagement?  Yes I do believe that we should have contact with other countries, but I don’t like alliances like NATO that hold us down.  Yet sometimes I believe that we have to go in and help someone, like a primacist. In a class we had we talked about this, and rather than me just saying, "Yeah, sounds good"  and going along with this ideal because it's easy to say that you agree with everything  I actually have thought this ever since we learned about grand strategy, and especially in the last month or two I’ve thought about it.  So something’s I believe are:  (this last part was in here because in the original essay it was to one person and I wanted them to know that I hadn't just taken this idea and written about it because I knew they believed it. )

I believe that we SHOULD try to make better relations with China since we’re kind of at a bad area with them and they don’t really like us at the moment.

  I think that we should also try to talk to North Korea to see if we can see why they are so aggressive towards us and see if we can turn down that flame before it burns us.

I also think that we should pull back many of our troops and perhaps cut down on the expense of having military abroad, but still have and train military at home, since we don’t want to be weak and disarmed.

We should focus a LOT on our debt and try our best to figure out a way, if not to lower, to at least halt the rise of our national debt.  We need to figure this out.  Some ways to do that are, like I said pull the military back home unless they’re in a position where leaving would prove more dangerous than staying, then we can leave them for now. Another idea would be to cut massive amounts of money off of welfare and Medicare and then run a campaign of advertising trying to get people to help the people who they know who are in need. Perhaps have the government set up a system in which people can donate to a fund which will help the people who need it.  And once we’ve done that we will be able to get rid of national government funded welfare.

Another thing I would do in the way of grand strategy is try to meet with rising nations to see what their goals are and while I wouldn’t give them an official alliance I would try to see if we could help them and vice versa.  With these and other changes I think that we could do pretty good in this increasingly global world. 

What’s right? Or what’s popular?

Remember, about half of these were written after midnight...  (and I wrote like 5 of them like that in one night) So if they don't quite make sense... or whatever.  Then yeah, that's why. :D 

The age old political question:  Should they vote for what’s right, or what’s popular?  Now, you might immediately say, “Duh, what’s right” But really this could be: vote for what YOU think or vote for what the people who elected you think. It sounds different now, doesn’t it?  

Well, there are arguments for both sides, for instance the second option, what the people want, brings up an excellent point when they say that if a politician votes for something other than what the people want then he’s betraying them, betraying their trust!  They voted for him because he said that he’s vote for what they wanted.  And he didn’t.  

But, the other side says, under this argument, we would just elect easily controlled men into congress, the wimpy ones who are willing to bend if we pressure them.  What we want is to elect someone who we agree with and who won’t sway just because the people disagree.  The people don’t often know what’s good for them, though it’s good for them to elect people since it gives them some control. 

The other side would counter with an argument like this: But why hold elections at all then?  I mean sure, so we can choose men who we like, but if they’re just going to do what they like then it’s all pointless, the point of democracy is that the people choose!  

But here, I think, is the clincher, the winning answer, the reason why I believe that men should follow their conscious:  What is a man, but what he thinks?  If he gives that up, then he is no longer a man, but is a puppet.  The point of a republic is to let good, honest men be elected and have them go with what they believe to be right. Men are meant to follow what they believe, not to sway to the whims of a mob. 

If politicians followed their hearts I think that we’d have a much better government, and we’d be able to rise up much better, and succeed ad a country.

Welfare: the poison of America.

Well, I've been doing non-stop school for the past few months, But I finished!! :D
So I'll be able to post some things on here now. :D

(This is an essay I wrote for Extra credit in my world history class, I'll be posting a lot of similar things  for a while, also, in many of them I take a stand and defend it, even though I might not agree with it. for instance, I have two essays that are contradictory, since that was easy and fun to write.)

You read this title and you think one of two things, the first thing might be: “You heartless person!” And the other opposite will be: “YEAH! They didn’t earn it! We’re just enabling them!” Now, I’m obviously generalizing, and exaggerating, perhaps you understand the real problem, and solution.  And if so, I salute you, you already know what I’m going to talk about.  Here’s the thing.  Welfare IS a poison, but, many of these people still do need help!  We can’t just let them starve, jobless!  I have a solution, but first, let us look at an example

Let’s take Rome.  A strong empire indeed, but this is where most republicans get their data.  The roman government gave the people something called, “The dole” which was a daily ration, if they needed it.  So, what did this do to the people? they all stopped working! Free food!  so then the government had to pay them huge amounts to work, and then the government lost money.  but that’s not the point.  The point is that, the dole made them weak, it made them rely on the government! This is one of the big problems republicans have, they don’t want the entire population of America to become reliable on welfare. 

THIS is why it’s a poison! Because it’s true, welfare is a poison but it’s not the kind that immediately kills.  It’s like a drug, it gets you addicted, then, if you try to quit suddenly you get VERY sick and can die.  But we can’t just let them starve.  That would be stupid, heartless, and from a purely economic view, bad for business everywhere, to have a bunch of starving unemployed people wandering the streets.  So, what do we do?  

Well, there are a few things.  Firstly we must wean them off of it, exactly like an addictive drug.  But then we can’t just leave them there, like I said.  We as people must help them!  If there are real people helping them, people who they can see, and have to face then there won’t be those who cheat the system, but the people who actually do need it will get it.  This is the only way to do this, we must help each other to get better, it’s the only way.  IF we keep letting the government poison us then we cannot be free as an economy and grow.  We must help each other and be a better country.

Guys and girls.

This will probably be a short post. Because it's a response to ANOTHER blog post by one of my friends, Mandy.  You can read the post here But if you don't have time at the moment, I'll sum up.  She was talking about the differences between guys and girls.  Especially the whole thing about guys having a really hard time talking to girls, especially when they're asking for a date, a dance, or complimenting them on stuff.  She said, "I will never understand why that's so hard to do...."  I think I have the answer.The reason guys are so "afraid" so to speak, to talk to girls is for one of two reasons.  The first,  is that they're afraid of rejection, even if they don't think about that at the time, that's almost always one of the reasons.  And the second one is that we're afraid that if we ask a girl to dance or something they'll think that we "like"  them and then it would be embarrassing and every one would talk about it to no end.... and that would be bad. Every though we know that girls don't usually assume that guys "like" them just for giving a compliment or asking on a dance,  it's still scary.  And there you have it.  My probably somewhat inaccurate answer of a question.  I think that all I've really done is reiterate Mandy's point though.... Girls and guys will never truly understand one another.:D

~Nathan XVI

Well, that went well.... Not really though.  So, about two days after I made those goals, I got super sick.  I had a fever of around 102 for about a week and a half, it was lame, and icky, and I lost like 15 pounds haha.  BUT needless to say, I didn't keep any of these. So I'm starting again.  With slightly adjusted goals.  I'm going to get rid of the white shirt and tie one, maybe sometimes I'll still wear one, but I don't think that it's necessary.  Also, Jessica took over the chicken, because she wanted to see what it was like, so yay!! But, here are some goals: Prayer twice a day, Scriptures before class every day, Write something every day (like, fiction, story wise), and exercise Mon - Fri
Now the commitments, these are the things that I'll do NO MATTER WHAT. Homework for Geography and world events done the night before, Scriptures every day, Pray AT LEAST once a day, and then finish the Eagle paperwork for eagle scout this week.
There we go, Adios.

New Years Resolutions

So, I realized what I just did. I just spent the last half an hour reading scriptures, Listening to music, and while doing that I was thinking about this semester. I think I'm ready, but from past experience, unless I write it down and have it exact goals. So I came up with some that I will follow. In other words, for the first time ever, I have made some new years resolutions that I am writing down and will follow without fail.

#1 Read scriptures at 7:30 for at least ten minutes. This is something that I CAN do I will never have classes that early, and I should almost never go anywhere during that time. The only thing I'd be cutting into would be my sleeping time.

#2 Check chickens right before doing scriptures, give them new water, check eggs, the like.

#3 Wear a white shirt and tie to every class and for much of the day while I'm doing school. I've heard and experienced that when you wear different things, it has different effects on you. A white shirt and tie will help me focus, I can take it off when I'm DONE with whatever assignments I need to do on the computer that day.

#4 Pray every morning and night. I have done Scriptures every day without fail for the last year, maybe longer. But I almost never say prayers at morning and night.

#5 Get every single World history assignment done before class. NEVER EVER EVER not do an assignment unless there is nothing I can do.

#6 Follow these things. I will look at them, and I will follow them, It WILL change me, it'll be a huge change. But I need this type of discipline in my life. I am WAY to undisciplined. My Yellow (carefree funloving) personality had recantly compleatly overrun my red (determined strong forceful) personality. But, if I give myself these types of goals, super specific, my super determined personality should take over, and I should soar. So no more of the super determined yet never-follows-through person. I will now, finally, stand and throw off the bonds of laziness.
I'll keep you posted.
~Nathan Owens

Be strong, and of good courage.

*Takes one deep breath*
Alright. Break is over. (yeah, it took me this long for my brain to finally accept that) This is the time to stand and make this the best semester ever. I'm ready to ROCK. I am finally taking the amount of classes that should push me. (seven) I'll be busy and ready. AND AWESOME. I know that I'm saying almost the same thing that I said yesterday... but I'm needing to say it again. I'm going to make this the best time I've ever had. This semester, I've decided, is going to outdo the very first semester I ever had in Wiliamsburg. Yes, that's right, I believe that I can have that again. I. WILL. BE. OUTSTANDING. And it will spread, all emotions spread, if one person smiles, pretty soon everyone will be smiling, if one man is sad, people will join him. Well I a going to be the one to be strong. I am NEVER going to miss an assignment in World History. Yes, that is my goal. I will never miss an assignment because of laziness or negligence on my part. I'm weird, I could have inspirational people or my friends, or my family tell me this day in and out, but I wouldent do it, I'd be like "yeah, yeah... I'll do that... later" but if I make a promise to myself I don't break it. So through me this semester in World history will be AMAZING. I want this to be the best world history class ever, the one where everyone says, "I wish I could have been in THAT class!" With that, I now stand, after a year of negligence and laziness I now stand, and NEVER FALTER.
~Nathan

Time to start again.

I made it, I finished this semester with all A's and I had an awesome break.

And Now break is over. I had a three week break from school work. I've been lazy and such, didn't do much of ANYTHING. Now I have to get myself pumped to do school. 'Cause I am NOT feeling it right now. :P
I'm writing a short story, and I'm actually going to finish it, and I'm giving it a deadline. I am going to post it here Sunday before I go to bed, and it will be DONE. It may not be good, I don't know.... But it'll be done. So yeah, that will be cool. I'm going to be uber busy this semester, I'm taking 7 classes this semester. AND IT'LL BE AWESOMENESS. Okay, there, now I'm PUMPED.

~Nathan