JJ's World Views

Tag: Thoughts

  • Baggage

    These are a few stories I remember from working at the TSA.

    Years ago I used to work for the TSA, I was what they called dual certified.  I could work in either the checkpoint or baggage.  I worked at a small airport, during the summer we had both international and domestic fights.  During the winter domestic flights only.  Despite what people say about the TSA the people I worked with were decent people.  There were a couple of bad seeds though.  There was one I remember who always rubbed me the wrong way.  I really don’t remember his name but for here I will call him Stevie, Dude looked just like Steven Segal.  He was an ex-cop from New York now this guy was a head case.  He was one of those had to look tough all the time guys.  We were waiting for a flight to head out in baggage.  He was telling these guys how he planted pot on this guy, because he knew the guy was a dealing though, Stevie could not prove it.  I asked him ” Isn’t that entrapment?”.  Stevie replied “No, because I knew the guy was a dealer.”

    One of the flights I love working was Icelandair.  The people are friendly and agreeable. I used to try and say their names, when ticket checking.  They were a fun bunch.  I want to visit their so bad.  Though they did pack a lot of food products in their baggage.  Those bags were heavy.  These thing were filled with Turkeys, hams, fruit, lots of canned or boxed food as well.

    I spent about 50% of my time in either area.  The times I like working out front were when I was dealing with people from another country.  Granted many of these people were from the United Kingdom.  I prefered the over crowded passenger check in compared to what you might find is some bags.  When I first started I saw a couple of huge 12 inch double sided dildo, with a ton of gay porn around it.  Oh yeah and they were still lubed up.  Thank goodness for gloves.  Then as I was doing that search was a big teddy bear.  “Damn it why did I have to get this one” I said to myself.

     

    Many people may not know this but we got tested every year on our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).  If we didn’t pass the test 3 times your were let go.  The whole time you are being shadowed to make sure you are doing things correctly.  We were constantly training on the SOP.  We did have training on the x ray machine simulator every month and were tested every year.  I do not know how many times I have seen the same learning modules.  Every 3 months we had to watch a video on Sikhism.  How they are culturally different from the Arab Muslims.  This video went into how they where their hair, and the ceremonial Kirpan (small dagger).  It also explained how it is one of the youngest religions being founded in 1500 ce.

    What I am about to tell you turned me off from volunteering so much for overtime.  It was during the Earthquake in Haiti.  The schedule changed we started out with 2 12 hour shifts.  We did that for about 3 days.  Then we went to 3 eight hour shifts. for the next 3 weeks.  The Red Cross was there helping get people set up.

    I remember when I heard about the Earthquake in Haiti.  I was in the Middle of getting a tattoo, when he called to let me know that I was going to start that next morning.  I was supposed to be off that weekend.  My ex-wife and her daughter were there with me I was getting a cover up.  I had what was a golden broken heart.  It looked like a yellow broken heart.  I got it after a break up years before.  Since, I was married and happy for a bit I thought I might cover it up.  The pitiful heart was changed into a  beautiful blue rose with my ex-wifes daughters name underneath.  I still have it do I want to change it? No, it is now a reminder to me to take things slow.  Stop rushing everything.

     

  • Schedule for the Summer

    I am writing this out in order for me to keep up on my site.  I have a tendency to do a whole bunch of post in a short amount of time and then flake out.  Not this summer though.  I am going to post on every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday by 11:59.  This will also help keep me on schedule for the fall semester.  I cannot believe I will have my AA in Liberal Arts at the end of this year.  I am also taking two classes this summer Intro to Creative Writing and Adult First Aid and CPR.

    Coming up I will be posting projects from my Photography class and my last history paper I did on the four largest race riots of the 1960’s.  I am taking a Creative Writing course this summer.  So, expect me to be practicing on here.  I will also be doing a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a study abroad trip I was invited on next summer.  I chose from China or South Africa I will do a poll to see where my subscribers sit on this issue.  This Friday I am planning to upgrade my site from free to the personal plan.  Another way to get me more active on here as well.  The weekends are set aside for cracking out the camera and working on becoming a better photographer.  I want to make sure I have a diversified skill set.   A jack of all trades, master of none.  I just cannot handle be strapped down to one profession the rest of my life.   The only traveling I will be doing is in the greater Twin Cities area.

    The last thing is on August 12 I will be going to the St. Paul Aint’s  game.  This is a minor league baseball team normally called the Saints.  The Freedom from Religion Foundation and Minnesota Atheist’s is sponsoring them for one night.  It is a night dedicated to Atheists, of which I am, watch baseball and make fun of ourselves.  This is to show Minnesota that atheists are just like everyone else, we just don’t believe there is a god of any sort.  We have morals and ethics it is just we set them for ourselves, not a book.

    If you have any comments or would to request a location for me to photograph that you would like to see here in the Twin Cities leave a comment below.  I will see what I can do.

  • Hope

    This was written before the presidential primaries.  Now people can see how wrong I was.

    was at school today early for class like always.  I see a person I have talked to a few times before.  She is an older African American woman who is sweet as can be.  We were talking about what is going on in the world she is worried about what would happen if Trump or someone like him got into office. I showed her a video of Bernie Sanders Bringing a young Muslim student up on stage gave her a hug and talked about what his family went through during WWII.   It seemed to quell her fears a little.  She said there are still so many other people out there that hate and fear monger.  I told her “There are always going to be people like that out there. We won’t be able to stop that but what we can do is keep those numbers as small as we can.  That way they have no more power.”  She asked me” Do you think we change things?”  I told “Yes, the people turning against each other are the ones getting rich, while the rest of us are struggling.  They are afraid of what will happen if we as a people unite.  They will either have a violent revolution or a peaceful one.  A violent one would not end well for them and they know it. There are a lot more of us than there are of them.  I feel they will opt for the peaceful one.” and I gave her a hug.  We need to them that we are better than they think we are.  To them we are just pawns on a chess board easily sacrificed for their greed and contempt for us.

    Now more than ever we must stand together every religion or lack thereof and race.  To let these people know we are not just going to stand by and give in to their fear and hatred.  We are stronger when we stand together.  There can be no freedom without equality.  There can be no peace without freedom.  Let us stand and Yell “NO MORE” to the hate and fear they only divide us.  Say “NO MORE” to putting paper (money) before people. Let us give our children hope for their future, for they are our legacy.  Let the children know we care by letting go of the old ways and start to build a new world they can be proud of.  Keep hope alive and use your voice for that is the most effective weapon we must beat those who seek to divide us.

    Peace be with you all

  • Journal Entry 8

    This came from my old wordpress if it seems out of place.

    Ok so this is not a requirement for the course I am taking at school, but it is in the book “On Course” for which I am using in my paths to college success class.  I should have started it sooner, but I didn’t want to put more work on myself then I had too.  I am now doing this for myself.  The next entry’s I make are going to be journal suggestions from the book.

    In these journals, I am going to try using their guidelines for writing a meaningful journal entries till I find one that I like better.  These are accepting personal responsibility, discover self-motivation, master self-management, employ interdependence, gain self-awareness, adopt lifelong learning, develop emotional intelligence, and believe in my-self.

    Take inventory of your personal strengths and weaknesses as revealed in your self-assessment questionnaire.

    In your journal, write the eight areas of the self-assessment and record your scores for each.

    38   Accepting Personal Responsibility

    42   Discovering Self- Motivation

    27   Mastering Self- Management

    26   Employing interdependence

    43   Gaining Self- Awareness

    44   Adopting Lifelong Learning

    36   Developing Emotional Intelligence

    40   Believing in myself

    Write about the areas on the self-assessment in which you had your highest scores

    These scores were out of 80 points each, so none of my scores were rather high most hovered in the mid to lower point ranges.  I knew I had a lot to work on even before I took the assessment.  My highest scores were in discovering self-motivation, gaining self-awareness, adopting lifelong learning, and believing in myself.  I have been working on believing in myself for years going to therapy off and on for my major depressive disorder It just had not sunk in till started going to CBSST (Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training) at the VA.  The next one up would be discovering self-motivation.  This is so true of me my mind races so fast that I hardly have time to write ideas I have down and I do get bored easily.  Gaining self-awareness and lifelong learning are at the top of my list thanks to the internet.  You may be saying how does the internet help create self-awareness; well I don’t just use it for cat videos and viral videos I watch a lot of things that give me pause for thought like the Crash Course series and the multitude of independent news feeds and if I have questions about something I just check their sources or research it on my own if I Want to know about a subject.  Doing this give me insight in to who I truly am as I have lost myself through the madness of life.

    Write about your lowest scores

    Employing interdependence, mastering self-management, developing emotional intelligence, and accepting personal responsibility these are my lowest scores.  Employing interdependence, I understand why this one is low it is one that most older generational men deal with. We hate to ask for help this is the way we were taught “real men don’t need to ask for help I can do this on my own”.  This is something we are taught just by observing our fathers and other male role models.  The way I am combating this is by going back to school you have no choice in college you need to work with others if you want to survive.  Mastering self-management, I have always had issues with this.  It is no secret among those who know me I am a slob and my time management sucks.  This I am working on through today I was finally able to get some things out of my room and in the shed.  I also reorganized my room for a better study space; doing school work in the kitchen with 2 other guys in my mobile home made it challenging.  I put things on my walls to inspire and keep me on track like a world map with the places I would like to help when I join the Peace Corp and a work schedule for school work.  Developing emotional intelligence this has been a pain for me because I tend to bottle things up till I blow (and not in a good way).  This usually takes the form of a fight and I hate to fight I don’t want to hurt anyone or myself that is one of the reasons I am posting this in a public forum.  I want to be open and not hold in the all my feelings and if I can help anyone else who has these problems I am happy.  I do sometimes cry for no apparent reason I think that is my bodies way of relieving some of the pent-up emotions I still carry and don’t realize it.  Accepting personal responsibility, I have often blamed many things on my passed experiences for why I do or don’t do thing and more often allow other to dictate how they think I should live.  Dealing with this one is hard I have had to remove certain people from my life for now so that I can find myself and do the things I want to do.  Certain people I have allowed to have too much control over me and let them guide to who they think I should be.  I can’t let that happen anymore I realize the more I allow them to have control the more I hate myself.  I feel I am at a pivotal juncture in my life where I need to focus on who I am and who I want to be.  I cannot allow them to have so much influence on me or I may slip

  • My Depression

    I won’t own a gun because they take know effort to harm yourself or someone else.  I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder I have days where it would be very easy for me if I had a gun where I could easily just load the gun and pull that trigger.  Thankfully those thoughts have come in fewer intervals as of late.  Now days I just want to run as far away from everything and everyone.   My mind races with so many thoughts I can hardly concentrate or focus on one thing.  There are days I wish my mom had aborted me just so I wouldn’t have to live this mess up life with no meaning but to work, eat and sleep.  No time to decompress.

    People don’t understand the loneliness even when you are surrounded by others.  They cannot comprehend the darkness I feel daily. Sure, I am having a few good days where these things don’t enter my mind as much and they seem to be increasing, but I am always waiting for everything to come crashing down.

    I barely leave my home except to go to work or therapy, though I start back to school next week so that should help.  For almost 20 years I have been dealing with this problem; it is a fight.  A fight with my mind but it wares on me.  I hope school will help me with being more social because a lot of them are gone.  Maybe that light I see will get just a bit closer only time will tell.

  • My thoughts on The Invisible Thread

    Book PicSo, I went up to the school I will be going to in a week and a half to pick up my first semesters books.  I am taking 4 classes and got 5 books,4 text books and 1 short autobiographical novel” The Invisible Thread”.  I asked the guy at the book counter “What class was this book for?”  He said “English comp.”  I thanked the guy and paid for the books and went on my merry way home.

    Well I got home and do what I do every time I bring things home and start to skim through the books.  I zipped through the Math book, took a deeper look at the Chemistry book (damn I can’t wait.); Then I looked over and saw the smallest book there “The Invisible Thread”.  I picked it up and was like” I wonder what this is going to be like”.  So, I figure I am not the fastest reader my eye sometimes jump over words and I must read a sentence or a whole paragraph; because it screwed up my rhythm.  So, I decided I should probably get a head start and read some of it.  figuring that I would read a chapter or 2 a day. I started reading the book and before I knew it I was 3 chapters in.

    This is a great book.  It is a true story about a sales rep. from USA Today (Laurie) who meets an 11-year-old boy (Maurice)while he was panhandling on the street of Manhattan.  The setting was the late 80’s during the crack outbreak.   Laurie was just walking out of her building to run some errands and walked right past Maurice even after he asked her for change on the street.   She stopped and turned around and took him to McDonald’s for lunch and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship that has stood for over 25 years.

    This book makes you take a long hard look at the things we take for granted from knowing how to blow your nose to riding a bike.  She takes us through both her childhood and his.  We find out how different they are from one another but more importantly their similarities.  This book made me realize a lot about myself and that is why I started this blog and made this my first official post.

    Please read this book you won’t be sorry you did.

    importantly their similarities.  This book made me realize a lot about my self and that is why I started this blog and made this my first official post.

    Please read this book you won’t be sorry you did.

     

  • Political Discussion and Active Listening

    I know I have focused a lot on the presidential primaries and caucuses over the past few months. There is also so other elections happening as well that can affect our country happening this year on the national and state level, we cannot forget about these. As November 8 approaches we all must be diligent in looking at these candidates. These people can be bought off by the big money interests that have been hindering our democratic process. These races include governorships, state and federal senate seats. If we elect those who can be bought in any office this is a bad thing for the states and country as a whole.

    So remember the closer we get to November 8 let us all do our research on the people running for these seats and share the information on all sides not just the GOP or the Democrats. There are other parties out there as well Like the Green party, independents and Libertarians. We need to start including more parties in these processes in order for us to make any progress in this country. When we encourage healthy debate, this means setting aside our own Bias and actually listening to one another and using critical thinking skills, this country can become a true world leader with standards and ethics that others can follow once more.

    REMEMBER WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW AND WHEN IT COMES TO DISCUSSING THESE WE MUST MAKE SURE TO UNDERSTAND THE DETAILS OF WHAT OTHERS ARE EXPRESSING. Here are a few steps to help us all understand one another.

    1. Know yourself, this means know your bias and set these aside when talking about these issues.
    2. Actively listen, make contact and show the other person respect by making sure you clarify how you understand what they are saying. This can be done by Paraphrasing (putting what the other person is say in your own words) this way if you are not understanding them they can can find a better way of expressing their view.
    3. While the other person is speaking DO NOT be trying to come up with a counter point in your head. When we do this we are not actually listening we are hearing. The difference is listening is an active process while, hearing is passive. I remember a quote from Jimi Hendrix and I am paraphrasing here Listen to the music do not just hear the music. When all we do is hear the music you miss the message.

    WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PERFECTION FOR THIS IS TERM IS COMPLETELY SUBJECTIVE EVERYONE. ALL WE CAN DO IS MAKE OURSELVES BETTER AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF MAKING THIS A BETTER PLACE FOR ALL, NOT JUST FOR A FEW BUT FOR THE MAJORITY.

  • A take away from Hotel Rwanda

    I just watched “Hotel Rwanda” For the first time. It was hard to watch, but it made me realize even more how lucky I am. “Hotel Rwanda” is about the genocide of the Tutsi’s in 1994. This has also helped to motivate myself to do as much as I can to help those less fortunate. To stand up for what is right not just for me and mine but for all humanity. I am tired of being afraid, of the hate that has run rampant through this world. I feel we as Humans need to join together to stop the fear, and hatred.
    There will always be those who will feed on the weak minded, the poor, and the other. What we can do is minimize the control they have. How can we do this? You might ask.
    1. Stop putting profits before people
    2. Be kind to one another even when it is hard to do so.
    3. Get to know people of different races, cultures and religions.
    4. FInd our positive similarities and build on them.
    5. Start to build an atmosphere of cooperation instead of winner take all.
    We all share this planet together. None of us is better than the other, we all have strengths and weaknesses that can help us build a better world for the future us all.
    To some empathy, kindness, and caring are seen as a weakness. They would even consider me a bleeding heart. I say fine let them I WOULD RATHER HAVE A BIG BLEEDING HEART THAN NO HEART AT ALL.
    Why do I post what I post on my facebook? It is because I feel that we should have as much information as possible, to better understand the world we live in and hope come up with ideas to make this world a better place for all; not just a few.
    Though the Rwandan conflict has has been over for 20 years these old rivalries can always pop up, as we can see here in the states. We see how Trump is rallying white white supremacist around the country. Even if Trump does not win the presidency the fire will still burn with in these people. This is why we must stand together for the RIGHTS OF ALL HUMANS. This way they can not feed the anger, fear, rage, and hatred that comes with little education, high poverty, and desperation.
    WE MUST FINALLY REALIZE THAT WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS ON THIS PLANET, AND STAND TOGETHER AS ONE TO FINALLY ACHIEVE PEACE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL in this time and well into the future.

  • Journal Entry 7

    It is quite disturbing to me, as a student of history and culture, that our current administration denies scientific facts.  The last time something like this was going on Europe was in the dark ages.  Disease were rampant like the Black Plague and Leprosy.  This was at the time the Catholic Church’s doing.   While Europe was going through all this it was the Arabic Empire in the middle east that was advancing thing like medicine, navigation, philosophy, and alchemy (the beginnings of chemistry).  Now we have an even bigger crisis on our hands, Climate change, and we now have people in power who is stuck in the area of Dark Age Europe.  This time it is due to straight up greed.  For thousands of years the rich have ruled over us with money, knowledge, and might.  The people of the United States were starting to take the power away from the elites in the mid to late 20th century.  Then we allowed the greed back in to our political arena.

    This time like no other time before we have a tool that can help defeat the power grabbing sycophants, the internet.  With this tool we are more connected than ever.  We can become better organized and educated if we the people are willing to work for it.  It is days like yesterday, when I was up at the March for Science that gave me hope for the human race.  10,000 people marching in the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota and millions though out the country and around the world to say “Stop with your ignorant policies.  We need real change, not just lip service.”  Making money is not the end all be all to life.  It is but a part of life.  It is the experiences that make life worth living, not how much stuff we have.  We have been trapped in this mind set that “money makes the world go round.”  It is not it is us the people who give meaning to our lives, not some pieces of paper that are back by nothing but trust in our leaders.

    We the people have worked to hard to bring this society to where we are today technologically and socially to let it slip away.  This I feel is just the beginnings of a battle for our world and every living thing on it.  We must be willing to give up our conveniences and lives to bring about a better world for the future.  We have a chance to create a peaceful revolution on our end.  If we stay strong and are committed to peace those who are in power will have to listen.  it will be a long and hard battle this way.  But in the end we will be able to look proudly at ourselves for sticking to out convictions.

    Remember we are not alone in this.

    There are millions around the world waiting for us to take the lead

    and show them it can be done.

    I know this is Idealistic but with out Ideals we are just as bad as those we oppose.

  • Scrooge: A Guilt Trip

    Why do people call others who are not fond of Christmas, Scrooge?  This makes no sense to me.  I could understand it if the people are wealthy and hoard money.  That is what Scrooge was in a “Christmas Carol” By Charles Dickens.  This time of year is one of the worst for a lot of people.  They get depressed because they can not be with family or friends.  They dislike how materialistic the world has become. People also want to do things for others but do not have the financial means to do so.  These are all valid reasons for not liking Christmas I feel.  I fall into all three categories.  I have no friends, I am not getting along with part of my family, I hate that we are guilted into blowing all our money to appease Corporations;so they can give CEO’s and shareholders big bonuses and dividends, I also can not afford to do anything for anyone this year.  I am just not that fond of this time of years, especially considering that the only reason we have this holiday is based on a lie.  No one knows when Christ was born or even if he truly existed.  This holiday was made up by the Catholic Church to bring people of other religions in to it.  Then it was hijacked be major corporations to make a buck off the poor and middle classes.

    It was my third grade teacher who told us that Santa was not real.Of course this was at the beginning of a bad time in my life that made me question if there was even really a god.  I lost two grandparents, my great grandmother and my cousin between the ages of 8 and 10.  I was also molested by a babysitter, she did get fired by my parents but that was all the counseling I got until I became an adult.  I also did my own research on religions and cults and saw similarities between them all.  I thought to myself if I were in a religion which would it be.  If I joined one I would be condemned by the others it seemed.  I eventually came to the conclusion if there was a god he would show himself to everyone and let us know what he wanted us to do.  Instead of choosing a few to put forth his word and picking people who were worthy like a father or mother choosing who their favorite children were.  So I am now an Atheist.  I may not always be happy go lucky, But I realize that it is up to me to do the best I can to make this world a better place.  Maybe we should change the name of the season to the season of peace and have a couple of days where we can have peace for the most part around the world.  we don’t have to worry about the material things and focus on building relationships with other people.  This should I feel be a time for renewing people’s faith in humanity.  This should be a time when the world comes together to celebrate other cultures and people. But that is just how I see things. How about you?