Spirituality Part One

Hello, everyone!!! Sorry about the delay, I had a Calc quiz on friday, so, that delayed my post. Today, I will talk about many topics, such as, spirituality, the bailout, and some other random stuff.

People or websites (social networks) ask me what religion I belong to; how am I supposed to answer that? I mean, I am, technically, a Hindu because that's how I was brought up as. My mom is a, let's say, a religious person, who scared me if I did meat on certain days, god will punish me. I was forced to follow this religion and go to Sunday school when I was younger not knowing what I was learning. All these bhajans made no sense to me or why did we have poojas on certain days. If we do this, will something good happen or if I stop going to Sunday class or follow the poojas rules will I become a bad kid. I was confused and didn't understand why it was important to go class. To me, it was boring, pointless, and wasted a lot of my time. I didn't need to hear the stories about Ramayana or The Mahabharata over and over again. When I complained, I was told to keep going to these, pointless, classes for my own good. Finally, when I entered high school, I was put in the higher Sunday class. Again, I thought this will be pointless but I was mistaken. I, finally, am learning something that is useful, spirituality. The more I learned, the more intrigued I was. I looked forward to those classes every week. An example of what I learned was the all religions are pretty much the same; There is a supreme being, festivals to celebrate "prophet's" life, asks how you can be a better human being. I have my own beliefs that doesn't fit into any religion. In the end of the day, I am a spiritual person since I can choose to be who I am. To be continued....

In other news, another bank failed, gas prices are plummeting, sports news, and the presidential debate occurred.

I am not surprised that banks are failing after those horrible mortgage loans, again, the market will adjust itself. The bailout will, eventually, happen. It's only a matter of time, to see how much will we, the taxpayers, pay for this.

Like I said last week, the gas prices are falling will continue to do so until it hits 3.50 in the Midwest. Although, who knows with this volatile market where the price will bottom out.

In sports, the Cubs clinched a playoff spot. Now it's time to win the World Series. The Lions, finally, fired their GM, Matt Millen. Next, the Ford's need to sell the franchise to someone who cares about winning and focus on making better cars.

The debate was a draw. I don't think it changed anybody's mind. Each candidate defended their strengths and were exposed of their weaknesses. We'll see if they can improve on that performance.

I'll try to post my next entry on time. Thanks.

Good ol' plain rant

Sorry I am a day late of my weekly blog, I had homework. Anyways, I just wanted to rant about the things that irritated me this week.

First, I don't know why MTV is called MTV. They should call it RTV, since there are so many reality shows on that channel. There is barely music any music played on that channel. I missed the old days where they played music videos and had shows about music. Now, they have shows that are just plain ridiculous like "Next", "Laguna Beach", and "The Hills". Not just MTV but their sister shows VH1 and MTV2 forgot they were once music channels. I guess VH1 plays more music than those other two combined. When will the reality show era end? Don't get me wrong, there are reality shows that are good, but there are way too many that are horrible.

Second, why are so many companies failing and why is our government bailing them out? I think it's greed and short-sightedness. I feel like there are no good leaders who can run a decent company. Somehow, these CEO's get paid off handsomely even after putting that company into the ground. Then, we the taxpayers, have bail them out. Why? Let them fail, if they were so stupid to make those decisions. Why are the american people bailing them out? Now we;re in more debt. When will the American people say enough is enough?

Third, Hurricane Ike did lot of damage to the city of Houston, its suburbs, and the city of Galveston. My family was just there in May and it was a beautiful place. I was saddened to see all the destruction. There are a lot families that don't have a home, even the ones that were fortunate to keep their homes have no power. The clean up begins, but it might take a long time for them to return to normal. They need help. I hope the government, especially FEMA, learned from Katrina and make sure these people get everything they need.

Fourth, I knew the gas flow will be affected by Ike. People shouldn't be complaining, after Katrina, you knew it'll go up 50 cents a gallon. What irks me is that it went up in few parts of the country but not others. Fortunately, this time it took a week for it to come back down.

Finally, one of my pet peeves is people not caring about a decision. "What do you want to do today"? Response "I don't know" or "I don't care". God, that makes me mad. A simple answer would be nice. Then afterwards, "I don't want to do this". Well, you said "I don't care" so quit complaining.

That's it for this week. Comments are appreciated.

9/11

Today is the 7Th anniversary of the most infamous day in U.S. history.

Where were you on September 11, 2001? I'll never forget that day. I was a senior in Carman-Ainsworth HS, Flint, Mi, in Mr. Giguere's stats class. We were just told turn on the tv because something had happened. That's when I saw a plane hit one of the twin towers. The whole class was pretty much in shock, some even thought it was fake. After the bell rang, we asked if the test that we had for tomorrow will be postponed. The teacher said no because "that's life". What a dumbass. I and others ended up failing that test, highest grade 62%. Anyways, after my 3rd period class, I went home for lunch and to my surprise my mom and aunt didn't know anything had happened. I turned on the tv and showed them. They were awe struck as well. I had to go to my computer class where nothing got done because everyone's mind was on the fallen towers. After school, I had work (@ Meijer's) where the place was pretty much empty. I went home again, watched tv for the rest of the night.

Out of tragedy there were some good. All those firefighters and policemen who risked their lives to save others, heroes. Some even suvived the wreckage and were pulled out of the rubble. Flight 93 passengers who took over the terrorists and saved hundreds of lives even though they lost theirs. Then there were those cowards that decided to take lives of people. What for? Who knows? They changed a lot of lives because of their cowardly actions. It brought this country together for awhile.

I, actually, can't believe that it has been 7 years since that fateful day. Those images on the tv, that morning, will always be embedded in my mind. That day I will never forget.

Inactive People

This week's topic is inactive people because they are one of my biggest pet peeves.

I heard a statistic on the radio that bothered me; The U.S. is ranked 45Th (country) in life-expectancy although we spend the most on health care and technology. 45th?! How can that be?As a friend of mine would say "what a joke". It is a joke. There is no excuse for that. Although, there are many reasons for that ranking, e.g. deaths by murders, accidents, cancer, heart problems, etc. One of the main reasons is that people in this country aren't getting enough exercise. Obesity is a problem that needs to be taken seriously. If you are walking, let's say....through a shopping complex, how many people do you see waiting for a closer parking spot. It's faster (btw saves gas) to just park the car and then walk to the store. There are studies that say people are getting heavier at a younger age. Some schools are cutting recess or phys. ed. This needs to be remedied ASAP.

There are many things individuals can do instead of watching TV, surfing the web and sitting like a blob all day. They can go see the scenery by taking a nice jog around the block, go play your favorite sport, or maybe even have a hobby such as gardening (digging is hard work). There are many excuses that people give such as "the weather is bad, I am tired from work, I don't have the time, or I have nobody to go exercise with". Answers to the excuses are: the weather can be bad at times, but there are plenty of exercises that can be done from inside your home. Being tired from work is a legitimate excuse but can be solved by resting a bit and then do the exercises. Make it a family event, so that the kids can be involved and it is easier to accomplish if you have someone to support your endeavors. Sometimes having some alone time while exercising is just as good. All you need is 20 minutes or more of exercise to be beneficial to your health. I mean, are individuals so busy to take 20 minutes out of one's busy schedule? It doesn't even have to be all at once, it could be in 10 minute intervals. Come on people, get your asses up and do something about it!!!!

Why should exercise be part of your life? According to the Mayo Clinic, these are the benefits of exercise: weight maintainance/loss, better mood, combats chronic diseases, strengthens heart and lungs, and can lead to better sleep. It doesn't matter about your age, sex or physical ability, in other words, anybody can do it.

There is no replacement for exercise. You can diet or get lipo all you want but that won't mean that weight maintainance/loss will still happen. Why get lipo when exercise can do the trick? Why does things need to be instant...wait, that's for another rant.

There are many exercises that can be done in the comfort of your own residence and many websites that can help get you started. Don't be discouraged if the results are just mininum in the beginning, like anything people work on, it takes time to see the results. Just be consistant in working out, make it a habit. I hope after reading this, that you'll leave the computer and go start exercising.

Come on people, we can do this!!! We can be healthy!!! We are better than 45th!!