Contemplations from the life of a teen

And some news reporters are calling it the “largest campaign” of it’s size.

But is watching a 30 minutes video campaigning? Is that actually doing something?

Campaign is defined by Dictionary.com as “Work in an organized and active way toward a particular goal”.

Please enlighten me, how is watching a video “working” towards a goal? There is a difference between being aware and being proactive. Don’t get me wrong, being aware about something is a good thing, but most people stop there. They spread awareness and feel good about themselves and said they helped.

If you feel so strongly for the movement, please, by any and all means, actually do something. 

Earlier today, my friend Brock made the comment “it fees like the world is about to drastically change for the worse”. Which got me thinking about the world we live in and everything happening now, and how truly unstable it is. At any minute, completely unprovoked, almost any country could launch a nuclear missile almost anywhere else, and just imagine what would happen. Our country, right now, has enough firepower in it’s nuclear arsenal to blow all of mankind to bits, and then some. Imagine what would happen if we got in a war with China. Nuclear missiles and bombs back and fourth, destroying the planet we live on and killing millions, if not billions of people. Just by a few people calling the shots. It wouldn’t be millions killing millions. It would be a few people killing millions. All it takes is a few people in high places to launch a missile, and start a war. Not the people it would affect. 

How did this happen to us? Why have we actually come down to this being a real threat? We’re actually dismantling nuclear weapons so that way we don’t have the power to end human life. Imagine. Right now, with the right moves, the Earth could become barren. No more life. Incapable of holding life. Incapable of sustaining life. Barren. Dead. It’s a possibility. It’s real. 

Hopefully though, it doesn’t come to this. Hopefully the people in high places realize the actual stress on humanity all this stuff holds. How delicate such complicated things actually are. Human life has taken eons to evolve to what it is today (implying you believe in evolution, not religion. Not a topic for today). We are all so complicated, each individual. Right now, there are million cells in your brain that have arranged precisely to the point of actually holding and remembering information. And other cells that process that information, and create “humanity”. Others still tell your body what to do, which is all just cells that have arranged so perfectly as to serve unique, independent functions, all of which rely on others to keep the body alive and working. All of this. In every person. And look at our society. We’ve figured out how to make tiny chips made of silicon and metal hold data, process it, display it, work, solve equations, and do complex algorithms, all at our fingertips. Everything around us is so amazing complex, yet it all holds a sense of tranquil simplicity. Life can be taken in an instant. A computer can be broken in a second.

All of this hangs in the balance and is controlled by us and people above us. 

Life is so simple and amazing, complex and awesome, yet it will always confuse me when I think what we’re actually doing with it. 

Congress is apparently more obsessed with file-sharing and copyright more than anything else in this country. So why not tie it into other, larger problems this country faces (did I mention more important, and more possible?).

I think that congress should create a new firm of government, the anti-infringement department (yes, I understand that it’s abbreviation would be A.I.D. Not intentional, but ironic and humorous). They should then hire 1 million people. 20 or 30 year old people. The older part of our generation. And they should have these people scan the internet and take down illagal content. Like copyrighted music, movies, tv shows, whatever they’re worried about. So that way websites can still live, but the content gets removed. You pirate your music? Boohoo, go buy a CD or download it from the band’s website (not iTunes, artists receive like, no money from that. Support them directly), I promise it won’t hurt you. I buy my music. Seriously. And movies cost like, $1 or $2 dollars to rent or buy sometimes. I understand you’re stance on it with “The presidents of publishing companies/ studios are millionaires, they don’t need my money”, but in the event you didn’t notice, they don’t receive that much of the profits. The normal workers, people don’t the grunt force of the job, like selling, shipping, etc. get the largest percent of the money. So by buying it, you’re not so much making a rich person richer, you’re helping keep a company going and helping some guy trying to make a living. 

Moving on, you might be asking yourself, “But Robert, how would these people working for this anti-infringement firm get paid? I wouldn’t want my tax dollars going to them!” Well, first of all, it would be government, so yes, your tax dollars would go to it regardless. BUT. I think that the publishing companies, or labels, or studios should pay that firm. You pay them, they try and make sure your stuff isn’t pirated. Doesn’t that make sense? And in the end, it would work out to the company’s advantage. The money that they would pay to the firm would buy far be less then the money they lose. See how that would work? 1 million new jobs, websites not shutdown, only copyrighted content removed, people getting paid, and more money filling into all those companies with copyright stuff because people need to buy their stuff now (which isn’t a bad thing. It helps the economy, I swear). Our internet stays online, and everyone is happy. 

I feel compelled to recognize what would be removed by this department. Not me doing something that relates to a song, like signing my own version of it, or posting lyrics. We all do stuff like that. Bite us. It’s not even technically infringement. I mean like, direct copyright violation. Me buying an album, and posting it to the internet for the world to download free. That’s infringement. Of course, there would need to be precise lines drawn and standards set, but I believe it should still give users rights, and only remove the content, not necessarily charge the offender or put them in jail. It’s not like stealing a car, it’s sharing a song. They are not on the same level, and shouldn’t be punished as such. Maybe restriction from the internet for a while. Like grounding. But nothing on the sense of a full-blown crime. And due-process should still be involved. Maybe receive a warning, requiring you to fill it out in your defense. And if you repeat it, like upload something again, or share something again, or download something again, then you would be punished. Give people a chance to know what they’re doing, defend themselves, and stop. 

I don’t understand Congress with their attempts with SOPA and PIPA or ACTA. All they would be doing is censoring the internet, restricting free usage, and shutting down innocent websites in an at stopping copyright infringement. No matter what they do, it will happen. People will file share. But they need to find a better way of doing it, a way that doesn’t tick off the whole of the internet, because they way they wanted to would just cause some sort of rebellion. They need to try and work with major websites about the problem. Maybe hire some couple thousand government agents to watch the website FOR them, and remove the content, instead of just shutting it down regardless of their best efforts. 

I understand the government’s intentions. And it’s reasoning. But they’re just not doing it right. I support free usage, but I frown upon pirating other people’s work (yes, I HAVE done it before. I stopped a while ago. I buy all my programs, music, movies, and other things now). People need to understand Congress is not out to get them, it’s just not doing a very sensible job of accomplishing it’s goal. 

Remember Megaupload, and Viva la Internet. 

Every year, at midnight on December 31st, we celebrate the coming of the New Year. We throw parties, people gather in NYC, all the families watch the ball drop, and so on and so fourth. It’s tradition. There is always a huge hype about it. “Who’s performing this year?” “What are you doing? You should come over, we’re having a party!” “I can’t wait for the New Year, I have so many things I want to change!”

My biggest problem with all of this can be summarized into one word:

why?

I don’t understand WHY there are parties thrown for one particular day of the year. Everyone gets so hyped over… what? The changing of 2011 to 2012? But what makes it special?  EVERY day the same thing happens. It changes from February 23 to 24. March 1 to 2. Nothing truly eventful happens between December 31 and January 1. We don’t get superpowers. We don’t all get money. We don’t turn into werwolves. Nothing out of the ordinary happens, nothing more than any other day. If someone wants to throw a party on any other day of the year, it happens. So I guess I can understand using it as an excuse to throw one. Nonetheless, I digress.

My biggest problem isn’t the fact parties are held, it’s normally what the coming of the New Year entails, most notably one word: Resolution. Everyone has their New Year’s resolution. I’m going to change this, I’m going to do this differently, I’m going to reinvent myself, blah blah, the list could, literally, go on forever. Everyone has something else they want to change about themselves for their resolution. This brings me back to my original problem. Why? If you have a resolution to change yourself, or you know somethings wrong you want different, Why wait until New Years? We have the potential to change at any point for any reason, and I don’t understand why people need to wait for the excuse to do it. I don’t have any resolutions, when I find something in my life I want changing, or think of something I want to start, I do it. Right then and there. So it baffles me why people wait for New Years, or even have a list of things they want to change. You have the potential to change anything you don’t like about your personality, outlook, or character. There is no need to wait for the little number at the end of the date to change. 

In conclusion, I have to say this. Use New Years as an excuse to throw a party. Why not. Invite friends over, play some music, open a bottle of champaign (or sparkling grape juice) and share it at midnight, and have fun. But change when you feel the need to. Never stop improving yourself, at any time. Don’t search for an excuse or a time you want to change, make the time and do it when you feel it. 

Every week this year, I’m going to try and blog about something on my mind. Weither it be about a contemplation of mine over something that bothers me or affects me, or just a general rant, I’m going to try and do one every week. I’m going to call this project of mine my Publication of Contemplation. If you agree with me, so be it, if not, well it’s just how I think, and not everyone sees eye to eye. This is going to be the truest insight to my mind, in the most sincere and honest way I know. 

My name is Robert. I’m 17 years old. And this is how I work.

Bluntly, a lot.

It’s hard to say you don’t have regrets, they’re part of life. I hate the expression “Live your life with no regrets.” We generally regret mistakes we make, so living without regret infers you never make mistakes, you never learn, you never grow. Where would we be if we didn’t do any of that. No where. None of the most important people in today’s society can say they have no regrets. That’s just how it works. 

I have regrets. And I’m not ashamed of them, they define me. I dated a girl for 10 months. While I do not regret dating her, I do regret some of the decisions I made because of it. I hurt her, I pushed away my friends, I neglected a lot of important things, and a small plethora of other things. And I regret that. But look at what I’ve become; I’m a bigger person, with better priorities. And I also have said a lot of things to a lot of people and hurt feelings, embarrassed them and myself, and just looked stupid, and what human wouldn’t regret that.

You ALWAYS remember what you regret the most. I’ve said some things to people and about people that I won’t forget, because I felt stupid, and hurt their feelings. That’s the worse, knowing you just said something you want to take back, and never being able to. Or doing something you know will haunt you forever. But that’s life. And we just have to live with our baggage, and become better, and grow above it. 

Live life with regrets. Make mistakes. Learn. Grow. Become a better person. We all have something to learn from the past we are writing every second.