The world through the eyes of mine.

It's been a while since I last wrote on here. I know that in my last post, I wrote that I would be trying to update on a daily basis based on my readings of the BoM, to be fully honest, that didn't happen. It's hard for me to find the time and the motivation to do so.

To be more realistic, I'm just going to write on here whenever I want because, well, I can. So let's get started shall we?

So last week I had the amazing opportunity to spend the whole week, including Independence Day in Washington DC with my family. I have to say, it was absolutely fantastic. DC in itself is so full of history and culture.

Now, I have been known to be called a "city boy" because every time I find my way into a city bigger than 150,000 people or so, I pretty much instantly fall in love, but believe me when I say this, DC is one hell of an awesome city. The entire East Coast in itself is such a cool place, so different from the way things are here in Utah and Idaho; it's really quite a bit of a culture shock. People were friendly if they wanted to be, and they were rude if they wanted to be, it was all genuine, unlike the false kindness that has grown to be the norm here in Mormon country. Obviously there was the normal cool stuff too, all the memorials, the museums, the normal tourist attractions, all very cool. Overall, I approve of Washington DC, this is a place I would like to return to.

On the other hand however, we also spent a day in New York City, this was quite different I must say. New York was probably the dirtiest, grungiest and must terrible place I have ever been, and I've been to many placed. People in New York are just straight up ass-holes for no reason, they have no regard for each other and no regard for their city. The city streets, buildings, subways and parks were piled with garbage. People always talk about NYC being such a busy place, this is true, but it's ridiculous, it's as if people were so lost in the commotion and the day to day stuff that they have lost their personality and humanity, it was almost scary. This is a place I wouldn't mind avoiding.

The most important thing I pulled out of this trip was something I learned about American culture and potentially the future of our country. Like I mentioned before, we checked out dozens of museums and monuments. However, the truly interesting thing was the audience these things attracted. We essentially trapped in an ethnic, multicultural, multinational sea. Everywhere we went, is seemed that English was not the predominant language. It seemed that German and Chinese were the most prevalent, with the occasional French and Indian tourists. What was really interesting though was that these were the people which seemed to care the most and display the most interest in our nation and its artifacts. Bombshell eh?

Of course, there was plenty of American citizens touring the place, but they didn't seem to care, particularly the younger people, people my age and less. We would be standing in places filled with history, like in the Lincoln Memorial, or in the Smithsonian, they would be walking around texting on their phones, looking lost, asking when they could leave, and most importantly, disrespecting the ground they were standing on.

It was truly frighting to me, that this is the future of our country. People don't really seem to give a damn about anything anymore, they care more about themselves and useless things then what's truly important.

Something needs to change with this, I'm not sure what because I'm not sure what the root problem is but it's bad, and it's what we must do if this country is to remain at the top of the world. Perhaps it's the American education system, teaching kids to lack accountability, responsibility, respect. Or maybe it's lies on the shoulders of parents, parents who lack the courage to teach their children the same qualities.

This is a damn long post, but I think their's some important things in it, that whoever reads this, if anybody, should think about.

What the hell, your 20 live your life. Get out there and get crunk, not married

Excuse my title, but really? Maybe its just because its finally starting to happen to people who I can actually associate with, but damn, people need realize that 20 is the middle of the most exciting period of your life, at least so they say.

I can't even count how many people I know that are married before their 24. Most of these people are still in school, most of them work in a job getting paid minimum wage, most of them (this is of utmost importance..) drive a shit car, most of them live in an apartment designed for college students. None of these things should be descriptions of people who are married.

To get married you need to have a stable income. You need to be able to provide for yourself AS WELL AS YOUR PARTNER should, heaven forbid, anything happen.

First and foremost before you get married, you need to be mentally, socially and economically mature. This sounds a little weird but in my head, it makes sense (but so does vegetarian velociraptors)(WTF, my spell check doesnt know velociraptors?!). What I am saying is, I look at all these married couples and again, economically, they're not prepared. They work at your local grocery store as a waitress or your restaurant as a stocker (thats backwards but IDK). Thats not a good enough job to provide enough money for a marriage. Not to mention to even make enough money to make a difference your working long hours at odd times, so your not even spending quality time with each other. On top of this, a lot of these folks are still in school. Lets do some math here:

Average college student puts in between 12-14 hours a week for school, they say for every hour you spend in class, thats 2 hours of studying.
Say your working 30 hours a week @ $10 an hour.
you should be sleeping 8 hours a night.
these people usually go to church for 3 hours a week

so lets see here 12+(2x12)+30+(8x7)+3=125 hours of nothing time.
theres a 168 hours a week.

168-125=43 hours a week=6.14 hours a day of lovin time.. granted thats not bad but when you factor in that people have lives and actually have other things that aren't anticipated in life, thats not much time.

Oh another thing, your 20, you should at least hope to have some social life, subtract that from your 6.14 hours per day.

Which brings me to my next point, being socially mature; i.e. being not socially retarded.
This is simple, you don't want to be that friend that is lost to all of your other friends because you got married. We all know what I'm talking about. You get married and then your in your own little world; your practically a loss to society, you don't really contribute nor subtract. you're just a rock. No one wants to be a rock because rocks get ground up and made into concrete which is boring.  When you're 20 years old you need to get our and enjoy life. Because after that you'll have a real job and be forced to be a responsible member of society.  So act your age, be irresponsible and wear undies on your head....

Okay economically mature, your wondering "what the dickins does that mean?". I shall tell you, NOW!
Okay go back to my previous number of 30 hours a week of work at $10 an hour. this yields $300 a week. Say you get about $270 after the IRS has their way with it. Combine that with approximately the same amount from your partner, thats $540 a week, not bad. That works out to about $25,920 a year, below the average household income of Utah, much farther below. Thats not much. Estimate rent to be about $450 a month; insurance, gas, utilities, food. That leaves you very little to work with. What happens when your waitress partner gets mashed by a shopping cart then what?

I'm not ready to be called Olaf: destroyer-of-relationships, but living here in Utah and being surrounded by married people or people getting married, I am just hoping people have put all this into consideration before then tie the knot.