how to like, totally dumb up a conversation

The dreaded "like" can dumb up a conversation rather quickly. As a Californian, I've been a victim and can sympathize. One can only attempt to bring awareness and encourage ending this conversational cancer. I have noted problematic reoccurances of the work like amongst my academic peers, co-workers and intellectial compatriots. Even if you start off saying something relatively intelligent, once you say like, your validity is pretty much discredited.  It's word filler; a verbal crutch of sorts. Did I already say it makes you sound dumb and illegitimate? I'm pretty sure I did. How about an example to help you visualize? Which sounds better:

Ex. 1)
Sucrose consists of a glucose and a fructose in a glycosidic bond.
or
Sucrose, like, consists of a glucose and a fructose in a glycosidic bond.

Ex. 2)
How do you get to the 5 freeway from here?
or
How do you get to the, like, 5 freeway from here?

Ex. 3)
Wind gyres determine oceanic species richness due to their clockwise or counterclockwise motion that causes nutrient upwelling.

Wind gyres determine oceanic species richness due to their, like, clockwise or counterclockwise motion that causes nutrient upwelling.

I think the choice is clear.

We don't live in the San Fernando Valley and it's not the late 80's. Nor are we in high school. Then why do we talk like this? Perhaps it's just a bad regional habit that sticks. A similar situation to those hailing from Northern California and say "hella" every other word. People hella think they say hella a lot. It's hella excessive. But they just can't stop saying hella.

Or it could be that some people just aren't articulate. For instance, people who end every statement with, "you know what I'm saying!" don't know what they're saying. They're just flapping their gums for attention. The entire strength of their argument lies solely on that always affirming "you know what I'm saying" latched to the end of every sentence.  You end up robotically nodding your head, for fear they may continue talking otherwise. It's a total red flag, watch out for it.

Beware of the like. If you're over19, cut it out of your vocabulary. Especially while at school. Rule of thumb: unless you are comparing something or describing a time frame, you don't need it. It won't help get your point across.

the paradox of our age

Equilibrium is defined as a condition in which all acting influences are canceled by others, resulting in a stable, balanced, or unchanging system. Knowing that, we can begin this theory of mine by thanking Darwin for his excellent work in the upheaval of his theory of evolution. Darwin may have started out as an uber religious guy, but even he couldn't deny the impeccability of science.

Human beings consider themselves to be the pinnacle of evolution, the most complex and intellectually advanced over all else coexisting in this planet. Hell, we do have opposable thumbs after all. But are we cocky enough to believe that the bill stops here, with us? Our behaviors say yes. We are about as decadent as the Romans, not to mention wasteful and arrogant, carrying out a lifestyle that rallys around a doomed future. We've figured out how to control just about everything but the weather, and have a complete and utter disregard for everything that doesn't directly benefit us. Was it always this way? Let us analyze this.

A while back I attempted selling some old clothes to one of those trendy vintage clothing stores. This store is located by the beach so you certainly won't find good parking anywhere you wish. In turn, my friend and I ended up carrying heaps of clothing filled trash bags for a few blocks and I was genious enough to drag my trashbag of clothes on the ground. Of course it punctured a huge hole in the bag. So since the people at the clothing store are bitches and didn't take even half of what I brought in, I got stuck with all the punctured trashbags full of rejected clothing. Luckily my friend proposed to bring her truck around front, where I could just wait on the street with the bags. As I was leaning up against the stucco walls of the clothing store, trying not to look completely obvious with about 3 industrial sized garbage bags in front of me, I decided to pass the time by observing the passerby's. I noticed two girls walking past and heard a snippet of their conversation, which was enough to send me reeling into deep thought. One of them was explaining her reasoning for dating a guy, as she states, "what I really liked about him was that he bought me stuff." These words were uttered from her materialistic lips as she passed me, so I immediately look over at her and I notice that she has one of the tightest asses I've ever seen. I'm no homo, but I call it like I see it. A stupendous ass is a stupendous ass.

This got me thinking. That stupendous ass of hers probably conditioned her behavior. Finding guys who "buy you stuff" is a lot easier when you have ass. I pose the age old chicken or the egg question: what came first, her ass or her pettyness? Did she become petty because she has ass and knows it, or was she always shallow, regardless of her ass, which only exacerbated her pettyness? I tend to think that her personality was shaped by her external goods. By inheriting the trait of "good ass", this young lady is able to leach off of men and not put much stress on her brain; she doesn't really need it. This works for her. For all those other people out there who are little more shabby looking, they need to tap into their brain function a bit more and use charisma and intelligence to get them places. This is not to say that you can't have ass and brains, but the previous example helps prove my point.

And in ties the whole equilibrium effect. In the past, animals evolved due to a need to adapt to their environment, all the while leaving viable offspring who could also thrive and further adapt. Now the human is so complex and so intellectually advanced, that at times it may seem that in this parallel universe, there's nowhere to go but down, while our societal structure complexity continues to move upward. Although, I sometimes feel that humans are devolving, but that's probably because I hang out at places where dumb people go, i.e. bars.

I won't discredit the human race, however, because we've constructed some amazing things. The technology that we've engineered is beyond me, and it's not about "fitter and stronger" anymore, because we've invented ways to overcome most handicap. The world of medicine isn't infallible, but we've come a long way from bleeding people with leaches and all that other hocus pocus. Because of our intellectual capacity, we ditched the hunter-gatherer life and constructed an empire from nothing, all in an effort to make our lives more convenient. It's quite brilliant how we've mapped it all out, but ironically everything we've worked to achieve may very well bring our distruction. For instance, all those gadgets they sell on those infomercials are intended to make our lives easier. Sure it's great, but at what cost? Eventually all that shit is going to end up in a landfill somewhere. Yet the real issue is, with all the devices and pills that are put on the market to help us better our lives and ourselves, there is an onslaught of social problems.

We are continually discovering new disorders in people and there are continually new medications on the market to treat them (which have about ten side-effects a pop, all in exchange for curing your ailment. If your original At this point you must ask yourself which you prefer: rectal bleeding or nasal ?) How did these disorders evolve? It has to balance out somehow. The system, being society, must remain stable and balanced. When life was considered to be primitive, tribes or families gathered merely what they needed for the day and lived in a simple and relatively harmonic coexistence. Each member of the family unit contributed to the greater good of the group in an equal fashion. Families grew size-wise only in accordance with what was sustainable for the tribe, guaranteeing that everyone would be able to survive on what was available within their environment. Then with the coming of the agricultural revolution came mass productivity and output, and the eventual rise of the labor process. Here's where everything goes to hell.

According to Engels, "The hand is not only the organ of labor, it is also the product of labor." This implies that human anatomy evolved according to the "needs" of the labor process. Thus improvements in tools and products used to master the environment meant more complex forms of communication, and the advancement of our physical complexity. Our ability to maximize efficiency and output was inevitable, and doesn't mean that we're greedy or evil; it's our ability to think critically that sets us apart from all other animals. But what became the turning point for our society, which further distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom, came when production for use was replaced by production for exchange, and eventually for profit. With this came the rise of class society, and eventually, inequality.

Once production became a means of profit, communities were able to grow and flourish. This growth occurred exclusively within communities that were producing the most, so it's fair to say that not everyone was able to flourish in an equal fashion. Social complexity, communities and surplus grew quite steadily, but the distribution of this wealth was unequal, and eventually a small number of men began to rise above the rest in terms of wealth and power. And so, sexism and oppression began. Since agriculture relies heavily on physical labor, men were the ones who pretty much had the upper hand in terms of running the show. The new purpose of the woman? Solely for reproduction. After all, there was a need for an extra set of hands (or ten) on the farm. How else would you maximize output, surplus and further attain wealth? Great news, we've managed to transform our families into an economic unit of consumption. That's a milestone in the history in the human race, if I ever heard one.

So in essence, something has got to give. Though we've advanced in many ways, we've exchanged a harmonic balance that allowed sustainability of human and animal populations in accordance with the environment. We've sacraficed tolerance, equality, mental health and begun an overall degradation of self, all in attempts to "live better." Ironic isn't it? How long are we going to be able to keep up our existence, as is? I've heard as little as 100 years. Who really knows? And what are we to do? Accept our fate and be logged in the books as a historical period along with the dinosaurs? I cannot deny that it's tempting to throw in the towel and say "Fuck it, I'm going to just live for today. We're screwed anyway." It's true that one person can't save the world, but one person can surely make an impact. This doesn't even mean that we must individualy lead some kind of crusade promoting the salvation of the earth. The earth is going to be just fine. It's the people within it that will be done for. Change needs to take place within ourselves, and this was we can make a significant impact. The first place to start is within our families. Step one basically requires us to redefine our idea of success.

A measure of success up until now has been aligned directly with profit, wealth and social status. Somewhere along the way we lost touch with what really mattered, which I feel to be relationships, personal enrichment, knowledge, love and respect.

sell outs R' us

Did anyone see that commercial where Hootie and Brooke Burke dance like monkeys for Burger King? What a bunch of sell outs. Ok, I can understand why Brooke Burke might sell out to Burger King, she doesn't have much talent besides looking hot, but Hootie??? I was not really a fan of Hootie and The Blowfish, but I know they had a relatively large fan base. Could times really be so rough? I mean really. Burger King for godsakes? Burger King has to be one of the least popular fast food joints out there, besides Del Taco, which I would recommend NEVER going to. Everyone I know that has eaten there has become deathly ill. Anyhow, I was horrified at the sight of this Burger King commercial. Hootie and Brooke, hang thee heads in shame. You bunch of fucking losers.

lazy or stupid?

Why am I so lazy?
Do I procrastinate to ensure that my potential failure is a cause of my slothfulness instead of because I'm an idiot? Yes, that must be it. Finding out that I'm really an idiot would just be too painful.

stuff i learned in Costa Rica

Here is my first stab at writing an actual research paper in Spanish. I'm so proud of myself that I had to post it. I somehow managed to incorporate bashing Starbucks in academia...yay me:

En un día típico, llegó un poquito tarde a la escuela y como espero, yo estoy en una línea de 15 personas en el "Starbucks" de mi universidad. Esta historia se repite en el otro lado de la facultad donde se encuentra otro Starbucks, además del Starbucks que se encuentra al cruzar la calle, y puedo estar segura que ahí está saturado de gente también. Al fin consigo mi café y me voy a clase. Me doy cuenta que estoy rodeada de vasos que llevan el famoso logo de "Starbucks", y cada día sigue igual, lo cual es inevitable porque el café juega un papel esencial en la vida del estudiante universitario. Cada día miles de estudiantes consumen café para despertarse en la mañana, para disfrutar en un recreo y para mantenerse despiertos mientras estudian, conmigo también.

Cuando me vine a estudiar a Costa Rica no sabía que me esperaba o que exactamente iba a aprender. Nunca me hubiera imaginado que algo presente inconscientemente en la vida cotidiana de cada estudiante de SDSU, que nadie lo toma en cuenta, ha ayudado a decidir el estado económico de un país que afecta a millones de personas, incluyendo gente de la frontera. El café para los ticos ha tenido un gran impacto económico en el pasado y tiene un efecto más bien socioeconómico en la actualidad.

En los años 1870-1930 la caficultura jugó un papel decisivo, como actividad productiva socioeconómica la cual le dio poderes a Costa Rica. Durante esas seis décadas, el café fue el principal motor del crecimiento agro exportador centroamericano. Con el café u sus procesos agregados, empezó a transformarse el campo centroamericano y ya nunca fue igual. La caficultura contribuyó también a formar las condiciones de interacción sociopolítica en el interior de aquellas sociedades en que se constituyeron no solo la producción sino también las luchas de poder (Ortega 15).

En síntesis, la difusión de la caficultura en Centroamérica hasta 1870 había sido muy significativa, pero la economía regional en su conjunto distaba mucho de ser monoexportadora (Ortega 40). Costa Rica no solamente conoció la expansión cafetalera más temprana, sino que pudo asumir el papel de principal productor y exportador de café en la región.

Como Costa Rica era el país que dirigió la producción y exportación de café en toda la región, los ticos tuvieron ciertos beneficios. Es obvio que la caficultura ayudó a la economía bastante, entonces la población pudo desarrollarse un poco. Así la gente de este país tiene una ventaja sobre los otros países subdesarrollados porque con una economía sostenible, hay mas oportunidades para mejorar la calidad de vida. Y lo hicieron. El café les trajo tantos beneficios a los ticos en el pasado, que el café fue llamado "el grano de oro". Eso le dio identidad internacional a Costa Rica y a su gente, algo que nunca habían sentido.

Una de las desventajas que trajo el café en ese tiempo fue la división económica. Así como trajo un flujo de dinero al país, el café también empezó a formar clases sociales entre la población. La división de clases es algo negativo, porque siempre hay más gente en la clase de nivel bajo que en el nivel más alto, y ahí empiezan a formarse actitudes de superioridad y resentimiento.

Sin embargo, la importancia socioeconómica del café en el pasado tuvo mas cosas positivas que negativos. En la actualidad, el café ha tomado un sentido completamente diferente, por razones económicas. Como Costa Rica fue el principal exportador de café en el pasado, eso le dio más poder económico al país. Hoy en día, hay mucha mas competencia en la producción del café. Con países como Guatemala, Colombia y Brasil, le cuesta más a Costa Rica ser el poder económico como lo era antes. Con el creciente número de competidores, el precio del café seguramente va bajando. El resultado viene siendo que la producción del café ya no es una actividad rentable, porque los ticos ganan muy poco dinero con hacerlo. Con poderes como los EEUU, quienes explotan a países exportadores como Costa Rica, ellos pueden decidir el precio al que quiere comprar el café de Costa Rica. En fin, Costa Rica termina perdiendo porque los EEUU controlan el precio y nunca pagan lo que verdaderamente vale el café. Como Costa Rica no tiene otra opción, se lo tiene que vender con precio bajo a los EEUU. Lo más triste es que las corporaciones de los EEUU como Starbucks principalmente, venden el café de Costa Rica por el doble del precio que pagan. Me tomo completamente por sorpresa descubrir que Starbucks compra 80% del café producido en Costa Rica. Eso deja 20% para los ticos y el resto del mundo, que no es mucho. El mejor café sembrado en Costa Rica se va del país directamente al Starbucks, para que se pueda seguir alimentando la bestia corporativa. Aun así la gente sigue comprando y también los comercios de Starbucks siguen apareciendo en cada esquina. Esto no tiene fin. De por sí los ticos no pueden comprar el mejor café que sembraron en su propio país porque es muy caro. El mejor café se lo toman los estudiantes de SDSU y el resto de la población norteamericana, día tras día. Es una cosa triste para los ticos, pero es su realidad.

Es importante recordar que la exportación agrícola de Costa Rica afecta a países fronterizos, primeramente Nicaragua. Como hay un escases de mano de obra agrícola, eso le da una oportunidad a los Nicaraguenses para venir a trabajar en el campo. A causa de vivir en un país desarollado, los ticos tienen más oportunidades de conseguir mejores trabajos que su vecino al oeste. Ellos ya no quieren cojer café, entonces los Nicaraguenses cruzan la frontera para trabajar en las fincas. Igual como los EEUU explota a Costa Rica con pagar el menor precio por su cafe, Costa Rica también explota a los Nicaraguenses con pagarles muy poco por su trabajo, solamente porque pueden. Así Costa Rica se ahorra dinero y toma papel de un poder explotador.

Los efectos socioeconómicos de la siembra del café en la actualidad tienen muchos aspectos negativos, pero no faltan los resultados positivos, aunque sean pocos. Lamentablemente, ya no se considera "el grano de oro", pero el café sirve como una razón para unir a las personas. Es común entre los ticos juntarse para tomarse una taza de café. De esa manera, amigos y familiares pueden tomar un recreo de sus vidas cotidianas para reunirse y hablar tranquilamente para fortalecer sus relaciones. Es importante tomar un tiempo de vez en cuando para relajarse y disfrutar de la vida con lo que tiene lo mayor de importancia: la familia y las amistades.