norah jones is perfect for my mood.

i don't want to be in college anymore. i'm tired of the work and i'm tired of the lack of sleep and i'm tired of the excessive consumption of caffeine and alcohol and i'm especially tired of not having time to do the things that i really want to do. i love school, i love learning, and i think it's really important to be well educated. i just feel that at this point in my life it's not what i want to be doing. i want to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to rush to class. i want to be able to sit down for three hours and read something that isn't assigned to me and isn't from a text book. i want to get an apartment somewhere warm and beautiful and shop at local grocery stores and eat organic food and drink iced tea outside on a hammock with my aviators on. i want to be able to play my music at a decent volume without having someone bang on the wall, signaling for me to turn it down because the organized, beautiful sound is breaking their concentration and they have a nine page paper due for their feminist theory class. i want to get a simple job and lead a simple life for a little while, free of the burdens that i feel are weighing me down here. i have my life pictured in my head and the sensory overload that my current surroundings are radiating isn't matching the image that i have created out of nothing and everything that i am.

i just want to do what makes me happy.

drugs are bad?

the girls across the hall from me are smoking pot in their room and it reeks in the hallway. as i walked by i could just hear giggling and coughing. i had to smile. it makes me think about the fact that i'm going to one of the top colleges in the country and students here still use drugs.

many intelligent people in history have been drug users - winston churchill, timothy leary, sigmund freud... hell, even george washington apparently grew and smoked marijuana. people who use drugs are capable of being functional and talented members of society.

so why the stigma on drug use? drugs, contrary to popular belief, do not ruin lives. i believe that people who let drugs have that effect have personalities that make them prone to abuse and addiction. i have tried a fair amount of drugs (with the exception of meth, which i have no desire to try) and i have never been addicted to any of them. i think drugs can do wonders for people. from personal experience, i've found that smoking pot has gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life. not to say that i couldn't have done it without the altered states, but it made it a hell of a lot more bearable.

acid and mushrooms trips have opened up an entirely new way of thinking for me, not only about myself but about the world around me. it's an experience that i would never abuse. most of my friends back home use these sorts of things as just another way to get fucked up, but i see the use of psychedelics as so much more. it's a way to turn off the filters that your brain naturally creates and to see the world in a novel way. it's a beautiful thing, really.

as far as other drugs go (ie: heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, prescription pills, etc), i tend to stay away from them. i've tried them and i've had my fun, but i'm not really getting anything out of it so why take them again? these just don't do it for me. i do not, however, pass judgment on those that enjoy in partaking in these chemicals. to each his own, right?

so why are all drugs outlawed with the exception of tobacco and alcohol (to quote bill hicks - "two drugs that do absolutely nothing for you")? if someone wants to abuse these drugs and destroy their bodies and lives - let them if it's not hurting anyone else. we each have one life to live and i say we spend it the way we want - drugs or no drugs.

who the hell is the government to tell us what we can and cannot do with our lives?

some art that moves me.

Bernie Boston's "Flower Power" (1967)

Joel-Peter Witkin's "Story from a Book" (1999)

I don't know the photographer for this one... (2001)

Banksy (2005)

Bernie Boston's "Hands Across America" (1986)

And my own personal art form - drumming.

the times are changing.

i guess it's about time for me to jump on the blogging bandwagon.

i miss the days of being a naive adolescent. it's nice to think back to a time where everything was so innocent and the biggest problem that needed to be dealt with was a scratched knee from a game of tag or your best friend calling you a ridiculous name. not to say that there weren't bigger issues going on, but as a child you are just oblivious to all the pain, corruption, and general bullshit that is occurring.

the presidential election coming up is going to be a very important one historically. the united states is at a critical point. george bush jr. has run amok for almost the past decade and there's some cleaning up that needs to be done. this election could potentially make or break us.

and i'm completely torn on who to vote for. i'm not too pleased with any of the candidates, honestly. i may just be pessimistic, but i'm convinced that the country, if not the world, will go down the shitter before my death. society is doomed to destroy itself with war and bombs and violence. and if we somehow avoid that, global warming will get us. or maybe a massive asteroid will collide with the Earth and wipe out the entire human race. either way, i think we're on the edge of something big.

what's a twenty year old college student to do?