Ya know, if I kid wants to wait, that’s cool. Let them wait. I have no problem with people waiting if that’s really their choice, as long as it wasn’t forced on them and they have really thought about it. I don’t think repressing sexual urges is a good thing in any sort of situation (besides one that would lead to rape, then you must repress!)

People have said the following on the situation:

“These kids become sex objects, thrust into the spotlight,” she continued. “And while I know they’re all trying to stand out, especially during the audition period, using your Christian beliefs and the fact that you’ve never kissed a girl is not going to bode well for you while trying out to be America’s next big sex object.

“It’s a national popularity contest based on talent and sex appeal,” Preston said. “There’s nothing sexy about a 19-year-old guy who’s never kissed a girl and wears a heart necklace his father is holding the key to.”

What? I thought it was a competition about talent. Silly me. (how did ruben get so far?)

“I respect women and don’t think of them as a sexual object, and I’m the freak?” Dickson said.

I think that every guy I’ve had sex with respects women and doesn’t think about them as objects. Just because you’re a 30 year old virgin doesn’t mean you respect women, it means you’re probably going to be REALLY awkward and bad the first time you have sex on your honeymoon… Why not practice and make the honeymoon sex unforgettable? And there’s also the risk of that sexual repression coming out in other places… disturbing and weird places. But that’s a whole other story.

I feel bad for the kid in one way because really, he’s just doing his thing and what he thinks is right. But on the other hand… have sex man. No no no, sorry - don’t have sex, that’s fine. Keep waiting - BUT KISS A GIRL!

It took me a while… but I found my absolute favorite politically incorrect valentine. Sweet.

I don’t really like Valentines day. Of course I like the premise behind it of love, and showing people that you love them. What I don’t love is the notion that we aren’t showing those that we love that we love them every day. … and that companies make a lot of money off of our love.

A bunch of roses cost upward of $30… chocolates can go up to $80… alcohol is always a popular one… and that can get pretty expensive… one of the girls I work with is going to some expensive restaurant in Toronto… It’s just a money grabber.

Anyway - I’m not a grinch about valentines day. And it’s not even that I’m alone and bitter - I have plans tonight… but it just so happens Thursday night is date night. The fact that it’s Valentines day didn’t spawn the date. … But I’m sure he’ll act on the holiday. But I’m not going out of my way to avoid all the Valentines day crap…

so…

alas…

Happy Valentines Day Everyone.

My new “thing” is to try and sleep. … I don’t really fall asleep very early at night when I’m not working or going to school. So I’ve been trying to go to bed at around 12:30 or 1:00 am. If I can’t sleep, I’m not allowed to get out of bed - I can read, or write… but I can’t go on my computer, play guitar hero, watch tv or watch movies. So this is what I ended up writing last night:

It’s 2:23 am. I can’t sleep, I am awake mostly because of my screwy sleeping habits but partially because I can’t stop thinking.  Three days ago my problems meant so little to me, now I can’t stop swelling over being unemployed with so much debt and not being in school. I can’t stop thinking about the series of events that lead me to this point, and how those events will effect my future. Yet three days ago, I wouldn’t have thought twice about any of these things and would have fallen asleep just fine. What happened?

I attribute it to what I read.

Before last night I was reading A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. The book chronicles the life of a boy soldier. It tells the tale of his horrifying adventure of losing his home, family and childhood. Reading it put so much into perspective. After reading it I mad a list of the top 10 things that mean the most to me in my life. I couldn’t live without any of these things, and he had lost all of them (or never had it.)

Now I am reading a Chuck Klosterman book. Those who know him, know he write mainly about culture. He is by far the most talented writer I have ever read. His writing is so entertaining, and his ideas are so unique yet speak to the entire culture at large. He finds a way to say everything we wish we would have said first or thought we already had said but realize that we had never actually said it - just thought it without it ever really being a tangible thought…

His writing is also incredibly trivial. It offers no in depth look at what life is, or could be - only what the privileged west sees. Britney as a sex con, he sims as a reality scape goat and U2 as fake, or not. None of it matters and none of it is life altering. So when I go to bed I don’t think about it, and all of the sudden my life seems tragic again.

I’m not a rich sex icon, a millionaire, making huge political statements for the world to see, or even remotely famous. I don’t live their glamorous life, and don’t want to think about their glamorous lives that are so disconnected from the real world, struggle and strife. I end up comparing my life to theirs, forget my top 10 things, and think my life is a crap hole.

So what to do? I love those cultural books, and Klosterman’s writing style. He is my favorite author, but he doesn’t write the sort of meaningful and grounding non-fiction that I need to keep myself selfless (yet selfishly) motivated. After reading Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs I didn’t want to run to Africa to save lives, save the environment, fight for women’s rights or lobby against capitalistic whores. But I felt light, and happy… knowing I had just read some really creative and unique stuff.

I guess the easy solution is - Read Klosterman at noon, and read books about Africa before bed.

It’s nearly 2008. I think my favorite part about the last couple weeks in December is looking back at the past year, and seeing what came out of it that was definitely worth the time and effort put into it. So here it is - the my tops lists:

Top 10 albums:

1. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
2. Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good
3. Craig David - Trust Me
4. Pinback - Autumn of Seraphs
5. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
6. RJD2 - The Third Hand
7. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
8. The Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces
9. Elliot Smith - New Moon
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Runners up definitely - Feist, Radiohead, M.I.A and Of Montreal
Actually, i think this list of top albums might actually destroy mine… Not only is it a good list, but it’s also 100% Canadian. Woo! Feist!

Top 10 songs:

1. Apologize - Timbaland ft One Republic
2. Hot Stuff - Craig David
3. Toy Solider - Britney Spears
4. Alaska - Camera Obscura
5. The Way I am - Ingrid Michaelson
6. Bartender - T-Pain ft Akon
7. +81 - Deerhoof
8. Blueberry Tree Part II - Husky Rescue
9. My Moon My Man - Feist
10. The Past Is a Grotesque Animal - Of Montreal

Top 5 movies:

1. The Lives of Others
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Sweeny Todd
4. Amazing Grace
5. Surfs Up… fo reelz

Top 5 personal moments:

1. Moving home from BC… I miss BC a lot, but it is good to be home. And it looks like I’ll be here for a while, and that’s okay.
2. Getting alcohol poisoning. …I know, it doesn’t really sound all that good, but honestly - it made a good story and has terrified me into drinking less and less each time I go out.
3. The CFI leadership conference. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, introduced me to a lot of people and gave me an opportunity to converse with a lot of open minded, like minded people my age for a few days.
4. My first night out with Future Shop folks. Shit. Show. I established quite the name for myself that night. Gah.
5. Getting to meet Baby AJ! The birth of Baby Ella!

Top 3 games:

1. Oblivion!
2. Guitar Hero 2 - seriously, 3 isn’t really that much better. There are some good songs, but… meh.
3. Bioshock!

I hate halo 3 and the orange box. …so i dont even want to hear it. call of duty 4… it’s more than decent though. As is Assassins Creed, but I haven’t played it enough to put it in a top list.

Top 5 TV shows:

1. Heroes!
2. Flight of the Conchords
3. Planet Earth
4. Yo Gabba Gabba
5. The Office

Top 4 under-reported news stories:

1. Somalia … for some reason, few people knew about the + 1 million Somalians fleeing from their homes - while the UN sits back and watches.
2. Mansions in Luanda … Post-Civil war Angola had an economic growth rate 12.5% higher than China’s 11.5% rate. Thank you oil reserves!
3. 100 000 troops … Lined up along the Ethiopian and Eritrea border, just waiting to have at it, much like the crisis that happened there in 2002.
4. More reasons why teachers need to have background checks, character tests and need to be watched closely. Seriously.

Top 5 books:

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
3. The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
4. Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery
5. Busting the Limits of Time by Martin Rudwick

Top 5 environmental stories:

1. Walmarts green appeal. …They’re still not perfect. They still encourage suburban sprawl. They still suck money out of people. They still pay employees shitty wages. But they are doing great initiatives for the environment. That is all.
2. Moving from “environmentalists kill the economy” to creating green jobs to increase economic growth. Creating new economic sectors that cater directly to the hippies. Solar panel companies, organic farms… the new green economy should create over 6 million jobs by 2015.
3. The world’s 15 greenest cities
4. The Great Biofuel Hoax
5. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its 4th Assessment Report in which it declared that global warming is “unequivocal” and that it was “very likely” that most of the observed warming was caused by man. More than 2500 scientists worked on the report. The panel’s work was recognized with a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which it shared with Al Gore.

Top 5 natural disasters:

1. Bangladesh Cyclones

2. Mexico Floods

3. Hurrican Felix

4. Greece Forest Fires

5. Peru Earthquake

Listen! “It’s too late… to apologize.”

I realize they are just a …”cool” boy band that will be mocked very soon… but I can’t stop listening to their CD. It makes me tingle. I think I listen to Apologize at least 6 times a day, and I’m not even exaggerating. I made them put the One Republic CD in at work, so it plays a couple times a day while I’m there, and I listen to it to and from work… and usually when I’m blow drying my hair in the morning, and before I go to bed. It’s such a good song. Apparently it’s over played on the radio, but honestly… I wouldn’t know. I don’t listen to the radio, except for CFUV.

In other pop-news, I also got Britney Spears’ new album, it’s a piece of junk except for the song Toy Soldier. I put it on at work one day and I had a lot of people come up asking who it was saying they really liked it. After I told them it was Britney they were a little embarrassed, but seriously - it’s a fantastic song.

I also got Craig David and James Blunt’s new albums. Neither of them is anything special. I really like James Blunt’s voice… and Craig David’s lyrics. So they were disappointing or anything. Just nothing to go ape-shit over, like the One Republic CD. So. Good.

I worked 11 hours today… and then went out with work people. Gah. I need a life. I made a lot of commission today though - and hit 22% PSP… which gives me an average of 25.5% for the weekend. Fuckers can’t fire me now. (Actually, I got talking to a couple guys who have been with the company for a really long time and they think I should go to human resources with the issue because apparently they can’t make that threat.)

Other pop-ish things in my life - Surf’s Up and Happy Feet = awesome. I’m addicted to Guitar Hero. I sit on facebook on my blackberry for hours. My blackberry is sexy as hell. (The blackberry Curve…mmm) And I’m on season 2 of Heroes, which I think is pretty much the best show in the entire world … next to Sex and the City, of course. Hey - at least I’m not reading cosmo and watching the OC… I could be worse.