It’s almost completely lost now.
The economy sucks. Oil prices are ridiculously high, yet we aren’t seriously looking into alternative energy sources like hydrogen or solar or wind. Instead, we’re looking into ethanol, which is having major global consequences on food prices, the water supply, and the environment/economy in general.
Soft power — and hard power, I suppose — are way too low. The military is overstretched and meddling in places it shouldn’t be, doing things it shouldn’t be, effectively killing both.
The dollar is depreciated, but it’s not helping the economy like it should be because nobody wants to trade with us because we meddle and a lot of the other economies are having a hard time as well.
Without our strong economy and position of power in the world, what are we left with?
We’re supposed to be the world’s police force.
We’re supposed to be the global humanitarians.
Who’s going to take our place?
China?
China can’t even take care of its own people, let alone those of the rest of the world.

Why does the rest of the world need care, anyway?
We’ve managed to do well on our own. Why can’t everyone else?
Why is there a “third world”?
People are people are people are people. Skin color doesn’t affect the degree to which one is human. Neither does geography or religion. So why are some cultures so advanced while others are not?
Why is it that certain people have overcome the obstacles of their environment while others have not?
Why have some countries been able to overcome violence in favor of order while others are ridden with problems?

too many questions.

but at least I figured out what was on my mind, I suppose.

HILLARY IS BACK IN ACTION =]

finally. She won Tuesday’s Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas primaries; thus my faith in the American people has partially been restored. (Screw you, Vermont.)

That’s all. Have a great day =]

Thus, I am torn between the beauty of the city and the beauty of nature. I cannot decide which is more beautiful.

Man (genderless) is known for being resourceful. It is this aspect of our nature that sets us apart from the rest of the animal and insect kingdom. Stick us in a forest and we’ll build a log cabin; stick us in the arctic and we’ll build an igloo. We see natural beauty and surround ourselves with it until we have found a way to recreate it. But, which is better — our recreation (the final draft?) or original nature? (the rough draft?) Perhaps it’s our manipulation of nature, which, in itself, is a sort of recreation.

Here are a few examples: (all photos taken from www.photo.net . I have only recorded the names of the photographers for a few of them, so I apologize and if any of these are your work, I will be more than happy to acknowledge you for them.)

Chinese lantern?

Due to my inability to decide, my dream is to live in the city in the winters and the country in the summers, or the other way around. Perhaps, I’ll alternate yearly.

Opinions, comments, dreams?

–The Erraticist

My dad and I usually go out for breakfast on Saturday or Sunday mornings. This week, however, he was out of town until last night and we both woke up too late for breakfast, so we went out to lunch.

I’d been craving Sushi for a while, so I looked up sushi places and found about six of them. Koko happened to be the first one on the list and my dad was being impatient, so we decided to go there. It was kind of hard to find (no sign), but it was definitely a lucky find. The restaurant was kind of dark — you can tell it’s more of a night time place — but the decor was really cute and they had their Valentine’s Day decorations up as well, so it was an adorable red and white mix of hearts and Chinese paper lanterns. The place was empty, but it was a Monday afternoon. Our waitress was really sweet and helpful. The food was absolutely fantastic — and super cheap. The veggie maki were about 3 dollars each and the sushi maki were mostly 4 dollars. My dad and I each got 18 rolls. We got 1 order each of shiitake maki, asparagus maki, cucumber maki, and california maki, and 2 orders of avocado maki. We also got some edamame and miso soup. Everything was well-prepared and tasted wonderful. I definitely recommend this place for its atmosphere and great, cheap sushi. Also, the service was pretty fast and our waitress was very helpful and very nice, but not imposing.

Koko Sushi Bar

3140 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
Phone: (773) 248-2988

–The Erraticist

—EDIT—

Went back to Koko today. We had a blonde waitress who was a complete bitch. I should really find out when the other waitress’s hours are so I know I won’t be stuck with some chick who argues with us over what we ordered.

Oh well, the maki was, yet again, fabulous.

Tip: If you see the blonde waitress, leave, and come back on a different day.

& He is a brilliant photographer. =]

Examples:

Amazing!

I wish I could blow up one of his pictures to mural-size and put it on my bedroom wall.
Some of these pictures take him up to 2 years to complete. Fascinating.

–The Erraticist

Now, if you are expecting something reminiscent of Lipton, you shall be sorely disappointed. However, I promise that you will quickly realize that Lipton is bottom of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to tea. Even in times of extreme need, I’m not sure any self-respecting English man, woman, or child would touch the stuff.  It’s not tea. I’m sorry that the package says it’s tea, but I assure you, it is not.

I’m also a big fan of Chinese loose green tea, but you can get that pretty easily in Chinatown and its preparation is almost mind-numbingly easy. British tea, however, requires some instruction.

Without further ado, I present to you
The Perfect Pot of Irish/English Breakfast Tea

Step 1. Procure the right kind of tea.
I prefer Barry’s. [red and green boxes] PGtips is also pretty good. Twinings is alright as well, but I’m not going to recommend it. You can try that one later.
For reference:
PGtips
Barry’s Green Blend
Barry’s Classic Blend

Place tea bag (or two) into tea pot. If you do not have a tea pot, go buy one.

Step 2. Boil the water.
Fill a kettle about 1/2 – 3/4 full with fresh, cold tap water. If you do not have a kettle, you must buy one. We got ours from IKEA, but any old metal, normal-sized kettle will do. Place filled kettle on the stove top on the highest setting. When water is ready, the kettle will whistle.

Step 3. Pour the water. 
Pour boiling hot water onto the tea bag. Fill tea pot to the brim. (Obviously, don’t overflow the tea pot, idiot.)
Place lid on tea pot, and tea cozy over the teapot. If you don’t have a tea cozy, it’s okay. Just don’t be surprised if your tea gets cold rather quickly.

Step 4. Let tea brew for 5 minutes.
Not, 3.5 minutes. Not 4 minutes. Not 6 minutes. 5 minutes and 0 seconds. Use a timer.

Step 5. Remove tea bag(s).

Step 6. Pour milk into mug.
If you have a small mug, you should have about 1/4 inch milk. For larger mugs, increase proportionately.

Step 7. Fill mug with brewed, piping hot tea. 

Step 8. Enjoy =]

See! That wasn’t hard at all. Note. Tea should not taste “too milky” or “too strong.” If there is a bitter sort of aftertaste, you’ve over-brewed it. If you feel like you’re drinking heated milk with a tiny bit of another flavor, you’ve either under-brewed it or filled it with too much milk.

Good luck!

–The Erraticist

Have you ever watched a pro sport that you are practically an expert on and listened to the commentary and felt like putting the TV on Mute? That is exactly how I feel right now. I cannot believe how dumb the people reporting the elections on CNN.com are. The people reporting on the various TV news stations aren’t any better, believe me, but CNN is particularly obnoxious.

First of all, aren’t reporters supposed to be unbiased? I’m a blogger. I can be as biased as I want, [Go Hillary!] but they’re hired to write “the truth” and not their own opinions. I can understand supporting a particular party more. Coming from a CLEARLY blue state, it’s easy to see how a reporter’s surroundings can cause them to write with a bit of a bias, conscious or not. I also understand that newspapers choose candidates to support. They don’t do it in a manner that suggests they’re unbiased. They’re biased. We know it, they know it– total editorial freedom. But, yeah, it seems all the fucking liberal reporters are in the Obama camp and are therefore completely biased against Hillary. Don’t give me that “but he’s the better story!” nonsense. They’re both good stories. If you, as a reporter, are incapable of writing a good story about Hillary, that’s your fault. Go back to college and get a real job.

Second of all — and this is what sparked this blog — DO NOT REPORT THAT A CANDIDATE HAS ALREADY WON A STATE WHEN YOU HAVEN’T EVEN LOADED ALL OF THE VOTES INTO THE SYSTEM. Voting in GA ended at 6pm central time. At 6:01, the website listed Obama as the winner. Of course, 10 minutes later when about 3% of the vote had actually been entered into the website, Hillary wasn’t very far behind him (granted, it was 9 points). Right now, 12% of the GA vote has been counted. Hillary’s only down 10,000 votes to Obama’s 43,000. Sure, he’s winning, but it’s not like he’s just demolishing her or something.

Now, take AR. They haven’t loaded a single non-superdelegate vote into the website, and Hillary is already the projected winner. They didn’t do this in the 4 approved states’ elections before Super Tuesday, so why are they doing it now?

I ranted about this on the phone with a friend who said it was because of the exit polls that CNN takes, but let’s face it — they’re unreliable. Nobody expected Hillary to win NH. She didn’t, her campaign didn’t, and CNN was positive she wouldn’t! Yet, she won. Guess why she didn’t expect this — the polls that CNN and other “news” sources like CNN took claimed she wouldn’t.

We’ve been told time and time again that these polls, that statistics, in general, don’t work. So why do we trust them so much? Sigh. How silly. How ridiculous.

Look!
TN– 3% counted. Already given to Hillary. [ahead by 20%]
AR– 0% counted. Already given to Hillary. [ahead by 48%]
But, NJ–1% counted, Hillary’s ahead by 21%! Given to nobody.
and AL–6% counted, Obama’s ahead by 43%! Given to nobody!
IL– 1% counted. Already given to Obama. [ahead by only 10%]
OK– 4% counted. Already given to Hillary. [ahead by 26%]
GA– more reasonable with 22% counted. Already given to Obama. [ahead by 22%]

It’s completely nonsensical.

LOL. Oh, what a wonderful example of the bias I was referring to.

“Obama, McCain win multiple primary states.”

Yet Hillary has won 3/5 of the states they’ve already assigned a winner to. Why not mention her in the headline? BIAS.

I’m not paying too much attention to the GOP race. I’d prefer it if McCain won, but if he doesn’t, either Obama or Hillary would kill Romney or Huckabee in the general election.

I’ll explain some other time why I’m so pro-Hillary. [I'm from IL. Obama's my senator. So, it's semi-expected that I'd be for him.]

My hopes for today are that Hillary is declared the expected DNC nominee and in the general election, Obama is the VP candidate– or Edwards.. but he’s a tool. I’ll explain that one some other time, too.

That’s all for this hour.
I’ll probably post again tonight.

Go Hillary!
–The Erraticist

Anyway,

There’s something particularly eerie about suicide bombers like the woman in Sri Lanka who just blew herself up, killing 12 and wounding 100.
The 9/11 suicide “bombers” were different. It required a human to fly the planes. Though still rather upsetting, it’s a bit more logical.
But, there is no need to kill yourself in a marketplace or in a train station. You could just leave a backpack of explosives or something like that instead, which is why these incidents are so unsettling.
I understand the whole self-sacrificial honor that they see in it, but why kill yourself? Why not just kill people straight up? It’s not necessary for them to commit suicide, and I highly doubt these people would be suicidal without the honor/Muslim “Indulgences” (not to say that these are always executed by Muslims- they aren’t) given to them. It also creeps me out to think of the people who are asking these men and women to kill themselves. Why? To make it more dramatic? I’d say there are much better ways to do that, so why sacrifice, or rather throw away, one of your own?

It’s not even like these are super-isolated incidents. There are and have been suicide attacks all over the world.

I don’t even think they’re very empirically successful. They just make so little sense!

It’s more efficient and self-expedient for these groups to just commit murder, so why the murder-suicides?

Sure, if ever caught, they’d certainly be imprisoned forever or executed, but there’s not much of a guarantee we’d be able to catch them or be able to pinpoint and prosecute the exact person or people who committed the attacks. It’d probably be how it usually is where we focus more on catching the leaders than the expendables, so these people could go on with their lives.

Maybe it’s the guilt? But, that doesn’t make sense because if they were worried about feeling guilty, any rational individual just wouldn’t do it.

Sigh. How frustrating.

–The Erraticist

I also figured it’d be easier to load in pictures and everything on here than in an email. Plus, who knows? Maybe it’ll help someone else reading this. Plus, this stuff is badass and at the very least, you’ll discover a new awesome store or two. =]

I think I’ll organize this by store:

Threadless.com

T-Shirt: $15.00
“I’m Sure I used to Fit”

T-Shirt: $15.00
“Damn Scientists”

T-Shirt: $15.00
“Peace and Hate. Can you tell the difference?”

T-shirt:$15.00
“Darwin Kick”

T-shirt: $15.00
“We Are Just Pixels After All”

T-shirt: $15.00
“Connect it”

T-Shirt: $ 15.00
“Paper Cranes” [personal favorite]

T-Shirt: $15.00
“Music Snob”

T-Shirt: $15.00
“down with CAPITALISM”

T-shirt: $15.00
“Swiss Army”

There are definitely a bunch more great shirts on there, but let’s keep this not 20 billion pages long.

ThinkGeek.com

Track Jacket: $42.99
1up Track Jacket

Wallet: $14.99
Dot Matrix Wallet

lol I love this wallet. and the numbers resemble Pi. haha

Square LED Binary Watch
Watch: $169.99

LMAO
Wi-Fi Detector Shirt
Shirt: $29.99

Pac-Sun

Bullhead Hammonds Loose Boot Dark Tint
Jeans: $39.50

Rincon Slim Straight Blue
Jeans: $39.50

Vurt- Gunz and Zaps Sweater
Sweater: 29.99

Ambiguous- Katsuki Hooded Henley
Hoodie: 29.99

Element- Blast It Belt
Belt: 23.99

Urban Outfitters =]

Diesel Thanaz 8/W
Jeans: $248.00

BDG Thermal Hoodie Cardigan
Sweater: $38.00

All-Son Roll Up Sleeve Military Shirt
Shirt: $44.00

BDG Bootcut Cord Pant
Pants: 39.00

Nike Dunk Low
Shoes: $80.00

EOS Nocturne Watch
Watch: $74.99

–The Erraticist =]

I’d like to start out by congratulating the various advertisers that chose these songs. I think it’s brilliant that advertisers are straying more and more from the boring, generic songs and tacky jingles we usually hear in commercials and more towards the less popular, but fantastically good songs we’ve always wanted to hear. Of course, I can’t say I’ve bought any of the products advertised in these musically-aesthetic songs, but I have wanted to see the commercial more often. Considering repetition will lead to remembering the product, I’d say this is still a great success.

And now, the examples (with links! =):

iPhone:
Perfect Timing by Orba Squara on their Sunshyness Album
Why we love it:
It’s simple, it’s happy, and it makes us think of all the other happy, simple things in life. The lyrics are cute and we think of new love on rainy mornings in a big comfy bed by the window.

Macbook Air:
New Soul by Yael Naïm on her New Soul Album
Why we love it:
More happy simplicity. But this time, she’s French and has an adorable accent. It’s new. It’s all about what’s “new,” I suppose. Kudos to Apple, but I still don’t want a Macbook Air. [something about the lack of a CD/DVD Drive just really irks me.]

Zune 1
1234 by Feist on her Album, The Reminder
Why we love it:
I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. But, nonetheless, I couldn’t stop listening to this song for months and was even driven to buy her other songs, like Mushaboom and My Moon My Man.

Zune 2
This Is Why I Rock by MIMS, ft. Purple Popcorn from Music Is My Savior [BONUS TRACK]
Why we love it:
I hated “This Is Why I’m Hot” so this was kind of surprising. Then again, adding rock music to Hip Hop is almost always successful.

Zune 3 (Go Zune..)
Lake Michigan by Rogue Wave from their Asleep at Heaven’s Gate Album
Admittedly, I still have no desire to buy a Zune, but now have the intense urge to move to a city in which it rains all the time and they have restaurants with outdoor seating, but roofs over head so I can sit down and listen to my iPod. (lol)
Great Commercial, better song.

However,
commercials have ruined a few songs for me.

like:

Lust for Life by Iggy Pop on his Lust for Life Album
which was used in a Carnival Cruise (i think) commercial and which was killed for me the moment I saw the commercial. Long gone is the image of the fascinating Iggy Pop replaced by middle aged men and women with their younger-ish children on a family cruise. Can we say uninspiring?

Regardless of the Carnival Cruise Massacre, I am still proud of the advertising community, and the incoming musicians that were fortunate enough to get their songs on one of the commercials above. And even though I rarely watch commercials thanks to Tivo, it’s not as bad as it once was.

–The Erraticist (first entry excitement and all)