I feel like I am in a world of Narcissists.

Been awhile since my last posting on here. No excuses from me, I've been busy. You've been busy. 2020 is a rollercoaster alone, and I've been MIA for years. I'm not going to use 2020 as an excuse for my lack of commitment to virtually anything. I use these blogs when I am hurt and in need of some therapy. Is then anonymous?  Heck no, anyone who reads this could probably figured it out. 

So, let's begin. Have I improved in my writing? Not likely because I haven't practiced. My grammar may be awful, my spelling might have errors, and even so I ask you to read the message behind the errors. 

    Is this the same world that I was raised in? Rhetorical question because I know the answer. As children we are raised to attempt the closest form of perfection that humanity can offer. Rules we all agree to regardless of race. These are, in my opinion, things that tie us together as humankind. This doesn't mean that we agree perfectly. In some countries certain people have less rights than others whether by class or by gender. In others, we value individuality over community. I'm not here to make a case for which is right or wrong. I'm not here to say more than what I believe connects us in how we are raised. 

    If this is how we are raised then how come people are so focused on ourselves? Sure some people may be overindulged into believing that they are more important than others. Some may indeed just be more important than others. I'm not saying that isn't possible. It is. Doctors, for instance, I would say are more important than myself because, beyond CPR, I don't know how to save a life. Is it because, with the invention of the internet, we have become hardwired for instant gratification? I know I am guilty of this in many ways. This is brain vomit. Yeah, 100%. Is this what blogs are for? Who knows? 

I am privileged to have been born in a first world country. Anyone of any race born into the first world should be able to admit to this. Yet, there are some who don't. Some would say that their suffering is equal to that of people in developing countries. Similarly, there are some people from developing countries that live in luxury many couldn't fathom here. This is a form of narcissism I think. 

On the internet you either agree with the majority or you are "insert evil thing here". For example, (Not a Trump fan) people have likened Trump to Voldemort, the devil, white supremacist, and the internet only knows  Another example,(Not a Biden fan) people have called Biden a Marxist,  pedophile, and other names which are attached to people who have killed 80m+. This is a form of narcissism, too. 

    People have a problem imagining that they are wrong. After all, their pier group says that they are right, the media they consume say that they are right, and even the Youtubers they watch say that they are right because people love to watch media that supports the reality that they have built for themselves. We love that sweet rush of being right. Is it wrong to only view that which doesn't challenge your preconceptions of reality? Is social media making us weaker as humans? When I was growing up the sign of maturity was being able to see things from the view of others. Then using that view to strengthen your own argument. Yet, look who we have elected into politics? A whole bunch of gotem' people. People who rely on zingers to "win arguments". This seems like narcissism to me. Because regardless of the side people on their teams side all go ...WOAH HAHAHA GOTEM! Or some such version of that. 

    I don't see this as a positive future for humanity, but it seems to be the one we are actively choosing.

Whether that people with our money, votes or choices. Maybe this is all just philosophical, idle speculation, or untrue because people may have always been this way. I no longer find that hard to believe in a world where people are only seen through what race they are. After years of progress in civil rights we are reverting to race matters more than character. Civil right laws are being repealed in California, China has people in literal "re-education" camps, and there is more human trafficking today than in the depth of when slavery was legal. I'm sorry future generations. Millennials have failed to make change. We are aging and I don't see us doing anything. We are probably on scale the most destructive generation in history, and we are barely in positions of power. Take this one apology for the growth of taxes, the loss of freedoms, and the resurface of racism being the narrative. I'm not talking about Trump, either. This was done before he was in power with methods like Critical Race Theory. 

Good luck making friends, Good luck building bridges, and last good luck being you. The you that you wish to be, and not the one that people tell you to be. 

Be brave. Be Strong. Speak out, and last but not least strengthen your argument with their view point. Take responsibility for your actions and grow from your failures.

I love you all. 

To the one people who may ever read this rant. I love ya. Hope that you can do better than I have. 

Deuces. 

Mr. Al'Wright 

What draws people to cartoons/ anime?

I am back after nearly a year, and this has been on my mind for awhile. So, please bare with me, as I try to voice my feelings on this often controversial subject.

What exactly draws people to watching cartoons and anime? 

       I know some of it is, there is no limit to what you can do in any animated media. What else is there though? I have watched cartoons for the better part of my life, and I prefer them for more reasons than I could really put words to. So, I did what all humans do when trying to understand myself. 
I asked others. I read blogs on the internet, and I did it all in an attempt to understand my feelings and ideas on the matter. It is hard enough to sort out my own thoughts, let alone, figure out any one else's ideas. 
       I have, for myself, narrowed it down to emotional connection with the characters, moral strength(not religious, of course), and the differences in social norms in these fantasy worlds. I will do my best to explain my reasoning for these, and keep in mind I will call this an evolving blog. Depending on the feedback I get from people, with compelling arguments, that differ or align my opinions may change.

Emotional connection with characters:

       I personally find it far easier to build emotional connections with anime characters than I do from characters in most shows on TV. I think this is because you can see every action in there lives from their thoughts to embarrassing moments, which makes them seem more human than actors. 
When they hurt, you see it lined on their face.(Mad props to the artists who can do that) In example, one of the moments in my recent cartoon experiences. Uncle Iro from Avatar the Last Air Bender. The episode where he sings "Little solider boy comes marching home". It is like you could see the pain of every moment missed on his face, and the writers made him seem so human. You could as a person connect with the grief, as if, experiencing his pain with him. 
       Here is another example from Clannad: After story,(SPOILER ALERT), watching as Nagisa was dying in front of Tomoya because of giving birth. There was nothing in those scenes, but sadness, and you could see visually that he lost his world in that moment. 
I was so glad that story ended happy on a personal note. 
       
       My last example will be from AnoHana. The moment where they finally find Menma's journal. The main character had run through the forest until his feet bled, where they find personal letters from Menma in the same hand writing from when she was a kid. 
All the pain, the group of friends felt as they yelled, "Are you there!?", while crying. That moment makes me cry even watching it now months later. A group of childhood friends reuniting to say goodbye to their childhood friend Menma's ghost before she disappears. 
This ends with them all saying, "I love you", while crying. Even reminiscing these examples, I find myself on the verge of tears, and I love the writers for it.


Moral strength:

       You might find it hard to believe, but I learned almost all of my rights and wrongs from watching anime and cartoons. I didn't grow up with a father to show me the way, and growing up my mother was often to busy to have time for me to learn from. I respect what she did for me, and I hope you don't get the wrong idea. My mother taught me to work hard for the ones I care for. Animated shows taught me all the little things that she was unable to while working so hard. 
       I will use Naruto as my first example. This is by no means my favorite anime/manga, but I have continued to love it growing up. The moral lesson I got from this is to never judge someone based on heresay(Meaning don't judge without getting to know him or her). Naruto got a bad reputation simply because of something his parents did before he was born. With no idea why people hated him he grew up completely alone because of this. No quote for this example. This is just my perspective of the situation here. 
       My second example is from my favorite anime of all time, Detective Conan. I could fill up 15 pages of moral lessons from this show, but I will stick with a simple one. This show taught me to value the life's of others. Try watching this show and you won't be disappointed. 
"Do you need a reason?... Do you need a reason to save someone's life?...people kill each other and I don't understand why, but for saving a life, is a logical reason necessary?" -Kudo Shinichi, Detective Conan 
       I think the last moral lesson I would like to add comes from Death Note. This should be the easiest one to learn, but for most of my life I took for granted my isolation from the world. 
Learning and understanding that words could kill. They could also hurt people more than physical injuries. 
It is a lesson I think more should learn.
In regards to this lesson my favorite quote is from Detective Conan. "Words are like swords. If you use them the wrong way, they'll turn into ugly weapons. There are cases of broken friendship that could have lasted a lifetime if not for verbal abuse. Once you sever your ties, you might not see each other ever again." -Kudo Shinichi, Detective Conan
       When I first read/heard these words, it was as if, a part of my mind was opened up to that truth all over again. The reason why I am attracted to this is because these are fictional people that I would love to see more people in real life act like. 
No one is perfect of course, and I wish that I myself had more of these qualities and understanding.

Differences in social norms:

       This may be a little hard for some people to grasp. You might even like anime/cartoons because of it and not realize it yourself. In the real world the saying goes, "You made your bed, now lay in it." I understand that for some things it is understandable to think like this. Pedophiles, rapists(legitimately tried with actually evidence for both), murders and things like this. I have little to no understanding for.
       However, youth burglary, drug use and things like this I believe people should be given another chance. There are also cases of people charged with pedophilia whose "victims" have come forward and said they instigated the thing. The charges are never dropped.
       This is why I think these things should be forgiven. Lots of them happen from mistakes during developmental years, and most of these crimes come as a felony, which means they will be unable to travel outside the country and ineligible for lots of forms of employment.
In anime there is always second chances, or third depending on the anime. Lots of times even for the bad guys there is opportunities for them to change their ways, and find a understanding.
      There is no finality to a situation. The world itself accepts that people change through them proving that they have. The majority of opinion in the real world it is always the "once bad, always bad mentality." There are many countries moving past this in regards to drugs and rehabilitation. Argentina for one treats addicts as if they have a mental disorder(Which is often times the reason for the addiction). They clean them up and give them another chance at a normal life. I hope that the world continues to take this route.

Sorry about the slight rambling toward the end here. I was trying to give examples to explain why I have this point of view. If any of it came across as confusing please feel free to leave a comment and I will hopefully be able to explain better.
Thanks for reading my Ravings,
Derek.

The images in this post to not belong to me, nor did I make the gif's. Please give all credit to the artists of the anime/cartoon.

Fact and suggestions!

This blog is going to act like a part 2 sort of to my first blog called
Raised, bred, pass a test, or shut up and watch TV. So, if you haven't read that yet, please do, as I wouldn't want you to be confused by my rambling style of writing that some would call gibberish.

This part of this blog is the fact to support things that I said on my last blog, and my suggestions on how to spend more time with your children. How am I qualified? I am admittedly not an official father, yet, because that time in Mexico doesn't count. Just kidding! And yes, I know that joke is the most over used thing that ever escaped the 90s or was it the 2000s. I don't know...but back to my point. My mom was the mother of 4, and always managed to spend time with her children. It sometimes wasn't the most enjoyable time. I will be honest with you. I mean some weeks it would be the time between her two jobs spent doing laundry. I wasn't all that happy about it then, but now I am really grateful for the time I had to spend with her. Even the bad times. She would constantly make the effort to make sure I did my homework, or how my social life was going. Though as some of you who read this know, she has also told me to hire a high-class hooker in order to give her grandchildren. I am glad to say that I have not done that.

Now that my little white rabbit I followed it out of the way, I will no present a few of the many facts that I have learned through personal experience and too many years of psychology classes. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry(AACAP) children in American watch 3-4 hours of TV per day, and play video games also 3-4 hours per day. I will again say, or for the first time say because I can't remember if I have said this before. I do not think that Television nor video games are bad. This blog is also not directed at people who spend time and are involved with their children. I think they are bad in large doses, and I will explain why. Okay, okay I know back to the facts. Also according to AACAP children who watch to much TV are more likely to get lower grades in school, read fewer books, exercise less, and be overweight. There are also many programs,(usually not reachable until the ages of 5 and older I would hope), with violence, sexuality, race and gender stereotyping and drug abuse as common focuses. If you read my last blog then you know this is directed at parents who are not involved with their children and exposure to this at a young age can dramatically impact a mind still in development.
By saying this I will also say I am not suggesting hiding them from the world and the type of things that do happen, and they could and probably will be tempted with. However, if they watch a show and think for some reason that the guy doing drugs is cool, and you aren't around to tell them the bad side effects to such a thing... I don't even have to finish. That applies to everything on that list up there. Because they watch TV at young ages and think that it is acceptable behavior without someone there to tell them it is not.  I am sure you get the point I was trying to make. Sorry, I keep adding things in the middle of my facts, but I am trying to avoid the person who posts on here saying things like, "Oh you are just another one of those people from the government trying to get me to hide the truth from my children."  Or any other number of things they could say. In addition, to this I have found that the average american child spends less than 15 minutes outside per day. There are many more facts on this that I could take time to type out, but you are all capable of using Google.


Now it is time for my suggestions, which admittedly I don't have many. These are all also depend on how your daily life plays out, and only you truly know how to make time for your children, but here are my ideas nonetheless.

* Number 1: Take a little time each day to get up to date on theirs. This may not seem like a lot, but I like to think it shows you care.
* Number 2: Spend a little time per week to do something with them games, walking, talking. Even if it is something small, or even mundane. I spent a lot of time with my mother while doing stuff we had to do like chores. I hated it then, but now I realize how much it took from her. Time that she could have spend resting from working hard.
* Number 3: Make plans. I know some weeks you will have no time. Life is frustrating, busy and full of stress. So do this for both you and them. Plans to take a day and spend it with your family.
* Number 4: This is my last suggestion. Please always let them know in small ways that you care. Take care to congratulate them on their successes. It is the small things that really matter, and if all they hear is you grumping over all the things they do wrong they will never know you see all the things they do good.

As a side note the image at the top belongs to kidshealth.org, and I am not trying to use it to make a profit in any way. Second image is also not mine, but was on my computer. Yeah.

Raised, bred, pass a test, or shut up and watch TV.

You get the picture? I was raised on the border of these mentalities. Maybe I was lucky to have escaped its pull, or did I?
Nope.
My problem with the United States currently is its education standards and the way in which children are raised. Oh, I know, I just stepped on some toes with somebody who has children. "Who are you to tell me how to raise my fucking kids?" ~Angry voice~ Now shut up before you start. This is my blog, which means I am writing on my opinion on things. Don't begin to get butt hurt before I finish where I am going with this. Hear me out, and maybe I will begin to make sense to you.

I will start with how kids are raised. Yes, I am starting with my second idea first because I want to and this isn't an essay. I look at the world and it is beginning to look less and less how children are raised and more like how they are bred. Sure most parents might be there the first five years, but I don't see it anymore. I have more people i know who sit their child down in front of the children network than I think I should see. Am I saying that TV is bad? No, in fact I love TV and am a raving fan of Dr. Who. #Fangirling! Just kidding, I don't use hash tags. But, how many of you over use it as a substitute for parenting? Aren't those shows suppose to be a helper for the teaching you are already doing? Before you answer that tell me how many hours do you have them in front of the tube instead of interacting with them? 4,5, 8 or more hours? Now tell me how many hours a day your baby is awake, and what percentage of it's waking day is in front of the TV. Which brings me to my point; how many children are being bred and not being raised? You may say,"I still raise my kid even though I put them in front of the TV for long periods of time." Oh, do you really now? Well I mean we technically also "raise" cattle, the ones kept in captivity, fed through a tube, and all freedom taken away because they are there for only one purpose.

What is the purpose for our children? Where is the real education,(ah, see what I did here I tied it in for my other point), where is the learning? They don't really get any until college, and that is still only a select few teachers who are able to inspire their students to learn and to ask questions. They are put in to a system where all the children are treated like they have the ability to learn the same way? Most of their creativity suppressed, and yet we wonder why there is a giant wave from previous generations to take children out of schools. Schools that don't inspire learning, but gear them to pass a test. They forget over half  mere hours after the test because they aren't truly learning what they've been "taught" After they finish school, even college, they aren't even close to ready for the job they've studied. Most leave college with no experience and only have of what they learned still in their heads. So, ask me again what is my problem with this country? These are just 2 of many, but I will save the rest for another day.

Why did I write this blog? To rant? Well, yes, maybe. Actually it is because I don't feel like I see enough complaints about this. This seems like the future of not only our children, but also our country. People should be outraged! We blog and blog of twinkles when they shut down, and god forbid anything else so unimportant. Yet, when it comes to our children we don't spam the web? Where is our rage and our anger when we are setting our kids up for failure? Well this is my rant, and my first blog I hope you have enjoyed reading. Feel free to leave comments the internet is a free domain.