Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Mikl's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
9:25 am	It's weird how things can drastically change, but in the end goes right back to where you started from. It's happened many times during the course of my life. This cycle isn't always bad, but it is when things change for the better. It can really ruin your morale, because when things to start to improve, there's always a fear (sometimes a feeling a inevitability) that it won't last and you'll be back to where you started. The more this happens, the harder it is to be optimistic (and realistic). This time last year was the great because it was happiest time of my life. Simply observing the contrast from present day to 356 days ago is depressing. I'm not saying this is the worst time of my life (things are still quite good compared to that time), but it's far from great. I had everything I wanted and was truly happy then and it's really hard to have that then lose it. Now I know how great it feels, and that makes me miss it even more. At least things are slowly picking up and I know things will probably improve again sooner or later, but it's still hard to be optimistic. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
2:22 pm	News: Nothing New, Really I know I haven't written in this thing in a really long time. I haven't felt like it lately. That may change henceforth, but I can't say for sure. I feel like I probably will update this more, but that doesn't promise anything. So, what's been going on lately? Two things: back to school and moving. Yes, I am finally free of that horrible apartment. I now reside in a two story town house/condo thing in Livermore. We're only connected on one wall to an older (quiet) man who is never there. We finally have plenty of space, unusual for all the other condos I've seen. My parents ended up saving a lot of money (and I do mean A LOT) by buying this thing instead of a house of the same size (and that's just in Livermore, Pleasanton would be even more) so that works out great. There's not much else to say about that, really. This isn't really what I feel like writing about anyway. Discussing politics with my parents has always been a very confusing and frustrating debacle, even when done carefully. However, I've finally worn down my mom's misconceptions reguarding my political views, allowing true, mature discussions to take place. Before, she would have thought that my opposition of this current administration would automatically make me a "liberal Democrat" who parrots Michael Moore and opposes Republicans on everything for no other reason than they're Republican. Now, she knows that opposition to this administration (at least mine) does not necessarily make someone 1) Liberal 2) a Democrat 3) a parrot of Michael Moore or 4) simply opposing a Republican's opinion or action simply because they're Republican. While, yes, my political views could certainly qualify me as "liberal," I'm not a Democrat (even though I tend to agree more with certain Democratic stances, especially on social issues) nor do I parrot (or even pay much attention to) Michael Moore. I am finally able to express my honest opinions on matters in their entirety. And when I do so, she knows that I am expressing an opinion that that was either formed by me considering the information I have available or by someone else that I feel has been backed up with sufficient data. Finally (maybe not finally, but the last thing I am going to list) she knows that even though my opinion may conflict with hers, I am always respectful of her opinions. Luckly, as our discussions are able to develop with minimum prejudice and no resentment, she agrees with me more and more. This was not possible a few years ago, and I am very pleased. For the record, I don't dislike Republicans, Democrats, Whigs, Libertarians, etc... nor do I consider my opinions "more correct" than theirs. I simply do not feel that I can identify with either of the two major party platforms enough for me to consider myself a memeber (even though some Democrats come close as far as I can tell). I could actually find myself getting along rather nicely with true Republicans (whose paltform is based on limited government, balanced budget, etc...) even though we still wouldn't agree on everything, we could probably reach a satisfactory compromise. The conflicts I do have with the Repubilcans seems to be with Neoconservatives who have apparently replaced the party and this current administration whose platform seems to be anything but Republican (remember balanced budget and limited government?). I don't like, nor do I want to participate in a political atmosphere full of animosity towards those who disagree. I find that an infantile, counter-productive and futile persuit. I want to participate in an intelligent, mature and respectful atmosphere where opposing sides work together to reach a compromise that would benefit the country (and hopefully the world) as a whole. That being said, I feel there are both good Rebpublicans and good Democrats, as there are both bad Republicans and bad Democrats. It's not the party, it's the individual. I will go into greater detail of my opinions in a later entry. I need to organize my thoughts. Until next time. (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 29th, 2005
3:23 am	Springtime for Hitler If you haven't seen The Producers, go see it now. It is the greatest production in human history. If you don't watch it, Emperor Nero will kill you. "Got a call from the Reichstag, told me I was Fuhrer..." (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 17th, 2005
2:11 pm	One thing I don't understand about this family is how there can very angry fight with a lot of arguing one minute, but then everyone pretends like nothing happened the next. You can't solve problems with pointless yelling then acting like it never happened. The issue will still go on unresolved. You need to deal with your emotions first, then try to work out a resolution. I know I can get very emotional, especially with anger, irritation and depression. But I also know that emotions cloud judgement and it's dangerous to act on them alone. I admit it takes some self control, but just acting on how you feel at the moment can only cause more problems for you to deal with. My mom yelled at me this morning over something really stupid that wasn't even my fault. The thing is, she knew this but yelled at me because she was angry at my father. If she had thought this out rationally before she started yelling, I'm sure she realized that: 1) It's not worth getting angry over and yelling at me about. 2) It wasn't my fault. 3) She wasn't angry at me or the stupid thing, she was angry at my dad. I'm not saying we should try to kill our emotions and become robots. We are emotional beings and emotions can be the greatest aspects of our lives (yet sometimes the worst). But we need to learn to at least try to not let them cloud rational thinking, and to never act impulsively on them alone. A prime example of this were those who said things like, "Kill them all" and "Nuke Mecca" on 9/11. There was no rational thought behind those words, just dangerously charged emotions. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, October 10th, 2005
1:16 am	I Have Not Yet Died You read the title correctly, I am still alive. I haven't been feeling well for the past few weeks with the same thing that has been pestering me for about three years now. Luckly I'm feeling much better than I was and can now return to getting out of this place. You may now know it, but not leaving your apartment for anything other than appointments and the occasional look at a house isn't helpful if you're trying to trying to get out and socialize more. I should be returning to school tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. Like usual, I went to the Antique Fair and visited the guy with the Soviet stuff. Unfortunately, I was short of funds and was able to purchase far less than I would have liked to. Pictures of what I got can be found in the Livejournal cut thing. ( Items. ) Unless something goes wrong, I hope to see some of you soon. Alas, the entry concludes here. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 10th, 2005
12:21 am	Some Things Have Happened I have been more productive this week than I have been in the past month or so. Well, since my social life truly died a few months ago. I have become tired or wasting my life sitting in front of this computer playing games and doing nothing if importance. I'm just trying to become happy on my own, something I have yet to accomplish. So I suppose my burst of enthusiasm hasn't petered out after all. Here's what I've done: First, I've really been practicing guitar. I've actually been able to put forth the effort to practice every day this week and I put in a few hours today alone. I signed up for guitar lessons again with my old teacher and I told my mom I also want to learn how to sing. Anyway, I practiced the usual Pentatonic Scale and I actually learned all of "Silent Night," which has eluded me for a long time. Something has changed because I've never really been able to practice for too long. I'd always get distracted or frustrated with the lack of progress but today I was able to really get into it and got lost in it. It was great and I hope it continues. In my quest for employment, I have seeked the help of an employment agency for temporary work. I hope I won't require their services for too long as I plan to use them to seek temporary employment until I can find a more permanent job. At least I will get some work experience, some money, and will GET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE for some time. That way, I can have something more than that brief time at Mountain Mike's pizza on my resume. And the agency has already paid off, for I got a job. Unfortunately it will only last two, maybe three days at the most but it's a start. I'll be putting bottles into boxes at some place in Livermore from 9:00 to 3:00. Yay. I've begun to read more. I've always had trouble reading because my concentration just isn't there and my mind wanders but I've been trying to work on that. I'll have to once school starts up again and I'll probably have to read for English. So I drove to Borders and went through some huge book about World War I and read sections that caught my attention. While I was there, I bought a book about the Roman Emipre in the bargain section for $6 and read some of that today. I've always been fascinated by history in general and the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire has always fascinated me. I also made some progress in "The Life and Death of Lenin," and even though that book is difficult to read, Lenin was also quite an interesting man. Whether you like him or not, he knew what to do and he did it well. And I haven't even got close to the October Revolution yet. I also found out that I had a positive impact on someone's life. I was really suprised because I was completely unaware of this until my friend Rajiv told me. I must say it made me feel good because I want to postitive impact on everyone that I care about. I doubt any of you read this far, but that's ok. This is huge a lot of progress for me. Hopefully things will only get better from here. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 1st, 2005
10:54 pm	I Signed Up for Economics Today was a weird day.  I don't know if I was just tired of being bored or idle or what, but I felt motivated and I decided to try push myself harder to get things done.  I looked over my schedule again and realized I only had class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Even though days off might have been nice, I realized I would probably wouldn't end up doing anything and that never helped my mood.  I signed up for an economics class so I'd have class every day that week.  Hello, three more credits.  I also plan on trying harder to learn how to play guitar and get a job.  My mom suggested I try going through a temp agency that she used when she went back to work, so we'll call them tomorrow. I also got my hair trimmed. I also talked to a lot of my friends from Chile today.  They're all going off to bigger and better things.  My friend John moved to Virginia and bought himself a car and is taking a year off so he can work some before he goes to school again.  He might go to a university here in California.  That would be great if he could.  Rajiv is going to some college in London, Juan is going to a univeristy in Santiago and Daniela is returning to Israel to join the military and will later persue journalism.  I miss them all.  Sometimes I still regret having to leave Chile. I hope my new motivation doesn't peter out too quickly. Current Music: Bohse Onkelz - Danke Fur Nichts (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 22nd, 2005
7:08 pm	Tyler's house has been crazy these past few days. While he was at a movie, three Brad Pitts stopped by and debated philosophy then tried to outsing eachother. They would have stayed longer, but they had an appointment. Later, eight Vin Diesels showed up and started playing darts, using their chests instead of dartboards. That was quite funny, until someone told Vin 5 that Rome did not, in fact, have robots. Then all hell broke loose. All eight Vin Diesels erupted in a fiery rage and started fighting eachother and trashing the house. Once they were satisfied with the damage they caused, they left to go "rail some chicks." As you could imagine, the residents of the house were not too happy about the mess the Vins left, but even later on twelve Russel Crowes showed up and cleaned up the mess. They stayed around for a while, relaxing and reciting lines from "Gladiator" until some Gypsies came, trying to steal our shoes. The Russel Crowes threw telephones at them and the Gypsies ran away. About a half an hour later, they left to go get pizza and never returned. From then on, it was a boring night. (Comment on this)
3:31 am	One week of Health left.  I don't like the class. Other than that, nothing has happened since my last update.  Just a lot of thinking and such. Oh yeah, I'm not going to ferry around drunk people anymore.  I never liked doing that, but one of them left a pair of underwear in my car.  It turned out to be David's. (Comment on this)
Monday, July 11th, 2005
1:37 am	I guess it's time for an update. I've been in a weird mood for the past few days.  I've been feeling really anti-social with bouts of depression followed by neutrality.  This cycle continues throughout the day and shifts every few hours.  So if I haven't shown any interest in doing anything with you, don't take offense.  I'll be able to do things again.   I just needed a few days of alone time. We looked at houses today (well, yesterday really) and there are some nice ones and some less than satisfactory ones.  All quite expensive.  At least it's for real this time.  We are actually going to buy a house this time.  About a year and a half ago, we thought we were going buy one but my dad said no.  Finally, he has realized he cannot win (plus he's making very good money working in Iraq, destroying his earlier "we can't afford it" excuse) and gave in.  Hopefully living in densely populated and tiny apartments with horrible neighbors will finally end soon. After we got back from browsing houses, I picked up Heather and Tara and we went to Tyler's where the fun is at.  Nothing in particular happened there, but it was still fun. I guess that's it for now. (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
3:14 am	London Wow. I started to watch TV before I went to bed like I do every night and what do I see? "SEVERAL EXPLOSIONS ROCK LONDON." The news is currently saying around seven explosions and one going off just 15 minutes ago and there are "quite a large nunber of casualties." Apparently a bus was ripped apart and several others went off all over the tube. It's really scary as this event is apparently still unfolding and new data is constantly coming in. This is history happening right now, and I can appreciate it in this sense. God, now they're saying three busses. That's how quickly the news is coming in. I'm going to have to go to sleep soon because I already took my sedative medications. I'm almost scared to think which updates will be waiting when I wake up. My condolences, London. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 23rd, 2005
10:54 am	I had my Math final today. It was easy. I don't have to do anything until Thursday, when I have my History final. Then my summer begins. These last few days have been really hard, especially yesterday. I'm very worried about things. I'm not sure what else to say. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 20th, 2005
7:25 am	I don't think I'm going to even go into math today. I'm too tired and in the wrong mood. It's not like we're doing anything useful anyway, I'd watch a few more people do their presentations then go home. It's just not worth the effort. I couldn't sleep. I wish it was June already. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 19th, 2005
11:23 am	What a way to start my birthday, with rain. I like rain, so that's a nice gift from the weather. Thanks. Exactly one week left in the semester, huzzah. Tomorrow is my last "class day" then I have Math Exam on Monday then History on Thursday. I wish this was my last week like I thought, dammit. Oh well. So that's it. Nothing much going on but I'm bored so I wrote this. Good day. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 16th, 2005
4:05 pm	Oh, Fox News, at it again as usual. As you may know, some report in Newsweek claimed that interrogators flushed a copy of the Koran to get detainees to talk. This sparked a lot of anger in the Islamic world, threats of a holy war from clerics and riots that killed 10 and injured 100 (I believe those are the numbers, not certain though). Then after criticism Newsweek admits the report may not be true. Fox News, from its palace of journalistic integrity, takes the opportunity to get on the moral high ground and denounce the report and show lots of angry old men call the journalists "traitorous" and all other sorts of emotionally charged words. They said it's inexcusable because people were killed (like anyone at Fox cares about that anyway) and accused Newsweek of bad journalism and such. This wouldn't be too ridiculous (saying it's bad journalism, not the traitorous nonsense) if it wasn't Fox News of all places (refer to my "palace of journalistic integrity" comment) pointing the finger. Of course, it's not like they're seizing an opportunity to attack a magazine that doesn't report things the way they'd like or anything. Anyway, is anyone missing the huge irony here? Complaining about faulty sources, reports that turned out to be untrue and people dying because of them? If they get this upset over this article and 10 deaths, they should have really been infuriated about the WMD stuff right? Hey, our sources turned out to be faulty on that, we found no WMD and a hell of a lot more people died and will die because of it. Clearly, fair and balanced reporting is their objective and the work hard to achieve it. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 7th, 2005
9:46 am	I got my car, finally. Not too bad because I was supposed to get it next Tuesday, and some people have had to wait up to six months for their hybrid. They told me it was because I was so flexible on the color and I took the first one they offered me (blue). It's not the prettiest thing (I don't think it's ugly though) but I don't care about the appearance from the outside, the inside is where the fun is. So um, yeah. I just got up and I don't feel like going into details but maybe I'll add a picture of it later. My dad is now finally in Iraq. He had to go to Houston for a physical and Anthrax shots. He says tanks, humvees with machine guns and all other kinds of vehicles are everywhere. He also said the food is decent and they eat with the soldiers who keep their rifles with them as they eat. On top of that joy, the base gets attacked by mortars a few times a month, but is never actually hit. He says despite the situaiton, it is rather safe because there is a lot of security and they get a lot of safety training. He gets to see the Tigris river, soon too. Lucky man. I just got up, so I guess I'll go over here for now. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 25th, 2005
6:28 pm	The truth isn't always what we'd like to to be, but I strongly believe that doesn't mean we should bury ourselves in delusions because things appear to be nicer that way. I always like to persue the truth, no matter how painful or unfavorable it may seem. I think Academian Prokhor Zakharov says it rather nicely, "Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me. We long for a caring Universe which will save us from our childish mistakes, and in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary we will pin all our hopes on the slimmest of doubts." I never want to do that again. Anyway, it's been a difficult and confusing few weeks, but I think it's finally gained some clarity. At last, I think things are going to be alright after all. I hope I'm right. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 22nd, 2005
2:21 pm	Article I don't believe I've ever posted an article in this thing before, but this is a great one to start off with: Boy, 8, arrested after attacking principal with wooden pole RACINE - An 8-year-old Julian Thomas Elementary School student attacked and seriously injured the school's principal with a wooden pole Thursday morning. Principal Angela Ress Apmann was "somewhat responsive" after being struck in the upper body and head several times, according to police. She was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in Racine where she was treated and released for multiple lacerations. ... The boy was being held Thursday at the Racine County Juvenile Detention Center. He told police he brought the pole from home as protection from other students, but did not explain why he attacked Apmann, Macemon said. Full article here: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2005/04/22/local/iq_3493863.txt Oh wow, what interesting times we live in. First someone gets shot right outside my apartment, now this. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2005
11:19 pm	Wow, my dad will be offered a job in Iraq and he says it's 99% sure he'll be going. Maybe it's because I'm really tired, but it just doesn't really hit me. Maybe I don't actually grasp the concept yet or something. On one hand, the company that will make the offer has an excellent security reputation and he will be transported in armored vehicles and guarded by British Speical Forces at all times. But still, it's hard to not think of the beheadings and all, even though I'm sure they didn't have anything close to that kind of protection. I think I need more time for this to sink in. But wow, this is strange. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 9th, 2005
12:20 pm	Best Music Video Ever I found this on the somethingawful.com message board: http://www.luckykazoo.com/media/2005/04/america-we-stand-as-one.html "This masterpiece of modern rock is by Dennis Madalone a former Star Trek stunt coordinator who found god and has produced this bonbastic anthem which can only be described as short on lyrics, but long on angels and firemen." Oh wow, just wow. If only Bin Laden could have seen this, he'd realize we not only have angels and firemen, but CLOUDS that shake hands. Oh yeah, the clouds have people in uniforms too. Then he would have been forced to reconsider everything. But remember, like that woman with the baby, WE MUST BE STRONG. I'm sure they'd show this on Fox News, but it's missing a crying bald eagle. Haha, wow. Awesomerica, fuck yeah! (4 Comments |Comment on this)