Personal Philosophy

I know I posted something like this a long time ago, but my personal beliefs have changed a lot since then, so I decided to compile a new list of my beliefs... I don't care if you don't care.



• There is a reason behind all life event (destiny)
- Upon close examination, one can see a chain of events that led to his/her current position in life
• There is a balance to the universe (karma)
- For every death, there is a birth (one or more, randomized)
- Every action has an equal and opposite reaction
- Karma does not always effect a single person
o A “good” action brings about a “bad” reaction, but the person, or group of people, who performed, or were effected by, the “good” may not experience, or even be aware of, the “bad”
• Evolution is a constant
- Life has been evolving since it first began, and will continue to do so until the end of the universe
• Everything is relative
- Each person perceives the universe in a completely unique way
o No two people see the universe in exactly the same way
• Religion is “good,” organized religion is “bad”
- Organized religion is corrupt
o Only way to be “saved” is to attend church (or equivalent), give money and do everything it tells you to do
- Organized religion is not open to interpretation
o Religion leaders read the “sacred” text and tell followers how it “should” be interpreted
- Religion is about what you believe, not what the group believes.
• God MIGHT exist
- No proof whatsoever to go off of
• If God DOES exist, he’s a sadist
- Pain, war, disease, unnecessary suffering while “evil” people thrive
• No “Good,” “bad,” “evil,” “Right,” or “Wrong”
- Only Positive and Negative
o Positive = beneficial to life (Individual or group)
o Negative = harmful to life (Individual or group)
• Actions are dictated by emotions
• Most powerful emotion is Love
- Love influences almost everything humans do
o War – love of a person (Trojan War), love of God (crusades, jihad, etc), love of money (Iraq War)
o Crime – Love of Money/material goods (usually). Can also be Love of Family (fairly common)
o Education – love of family
 Sending kids to school so they can have a better future
 Going to college to be able to make more money (could also be Love of Money)
• Sex should only occur between two consenting adults who love each other
- Casual sex is pointless and only promotes pleasure.
• Instincts are positive
- Instincts promote survival and, often, success.
- Developed over countless years to help, not to hinder
• True Democracy can only be achieved when those with power are willing to give up power
- In a true democracy, the people vote for every decision, and majority rules
o No real head of state, only ambassadors (to give insight to how other countries would react to each decision)
• Pure communism is preferable to any other form of government
- Everybody works together, doing what they want (as long as it’s positive) and exchanging goods/services for other goods/services
• Violence should only be used if absolutely necessary.
- Violence begets more violence
• If you apply logic to any problem, the solution will present itself
- Too much logic can make it impossible to find the solution
• Heaven and Hell do not exist
- Afterlife is possible (No evidence for or against)
• Always tell the truth
- Lies destroy trust and only result in having to create more lies to hide the original lie
• You have to give in order to receive
- Respect for respect; love for love; etc
• Always try everything at least once
- Impossible to tell if you like something unless you try it.
- If you didn’t like it the first time, you might like it the second time, or even the third or fourth (especially when it comes to food)
• There are five dimensions
- Height
- Length
- Width
- Time
- Space
• Every time a choice is made, a parallel universe is created
• There is an infinite amount of parallel universes
• The universe is infinite
• It’s impossible that Earth is the only planet in the universe that can support life.
• Always bring a banana to a party
- Bananas are good

Traditional French

So today I started with Traditional French Cuisine, and I have to say, I'm surprised the class didn't get chewed out today... Then again, it was Day 1, so everything was fairly easy... On Monday, we have to serve twice as many people and make more food... Hopefully, the class manages to pull together to get everything done, but I have doubts.

Anyway, I don't really have much to talk about... I'm too damn tired to try to find something, too... haha

TTFN

It's been a while

Lucky for me, I don't care what you people think about how often I blog. :p

Anyway... Things have been alright. I'm really enjoying living in the apartment complex. I cook dinner almost every night, which is perfectly fine considering that I love to cook... haha... The only thing that frustrates me is that one of my roommates rarely eats the food that we make. For example, I made an apple pie the other day, and he basically refused to taste it. He said it was because he didn't want any, but I think he just didn't want to admit that I could make a better apple pie than his girlfriend, who is in Pastry Arts... I really shouldn't complain, but I can't help it... it's insulting.

My classes are going well, though, so I really shouldn't complain too much... then again, there are a lot of morons in my class that have no business being in the industry... I can think of 3 that definitely don't belong, and a handful that just need to practice and gain more experience. Despite that understanding, they still stress me out immensely... Oh well...

PICTURE TIME!!!
These are all the plates I've put together for Advanced Patisserie. :p















Chocolate Mousse with raspberry and passion fruit coulis















Gingerbread cake with poached pear, creme anglaise, and a reduction made from the poaching liquid















Mint Pear Bavarian Cream, strawberry coulis, poaching liquid reduction















Fresh Fruit Tart with raspberry and blackberry coulis















Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust, caramelized orange supremes, creme anglaise and caramel sauce (this is my favorite of all that I've made so far)

Back to school

Well, I've been back at school for just over 2 weeks now, and I must say, it's already better than last year... The apartment is really nice, and it's awesome to be able to cook. The only problem I have is that I'm so far away from Anna. If she were here with me, or if I could see her at least once every other week (I'd prefer every day or once a week, but that won't happen even if she comes to NC for college), then it wouldn't be so bad. It'd also be nice if I had a job, unfortunately, all the jobs were taken before I even got down here... that's what it seems like at least... going into winter season doesn't help me at all either... most places aren't hiring at all, and the places that are tend to be fast food... I realize that I should just suck it up and work fast food, but every part of me screams "HELL NO!!!" whenever I try to go get an application for a fast food joint.

I suppose the best part about everything is that I won't be here the entire school year. Once I go home for Spring Break, I'm basically done for the year. The only thing I'll need to do is work for my Internship, which will most likely be at The Hotel Hershey... I'm going to look at other places, but The Hotel seems to be my best option... I mean, it's a paid internship and it's only 30 minutes away from my mom's house, which means all I need to pay for is gas to get to work.

Well, that's really all I have to say right now.... TTFN

Can't sleep

This is the problem I have every night after work... I just can't seem to fall asleep... I don't know why... I think it's the fact that the adrenaline rush from service just doesn't wear off fast enough. I might be wrong there, but that's what it seems like.

Anyway, I've been working 40 hours a week (Sometimes more) and I've been getting my ass kicked during service. I recently started doing pizza line every now and then, and that can be a bit stressful during service... especially considering that it's only a 2 deck oven, and the bottom deck is usually used for baked ziti, tortellini, grilled cheese and for warming up panini stuff.... so yeah... To top it all off, when working pizza line, you're guaranteed to get your forearms covered in a thick layer of dried flour and sweat. It's even worse once you realize that you also have flour caked on your face.

But do I like my job? Of course I do. I really can't see myself anywhere else at the moment. I hated CDR, and I don't want to go to another restaurant at the Hotel and have to learn another menu... especially in the middle of summer... Plus, I don't think the other cooks in Trevi would appreciate me leaving as soon as I start doing well... lol

Anyway, I'm gonna try to go to bed now.... wish me luck... ttfn

Part time worker with full time hours

So my work schedule this week has me both happy and irritated... Happy, because I'm getting a lot of hours. Irritated, because I only have one day off, and that day just happens to be the day that Anna works. So I'm gonna be working 48 hours this week, and the only times I can see Anna are before I go to work, and on Friday before she goes to work...

Don't get me wrong now, I love working at the Hotel. They moved me to Trevi 5, the contemporary Italian restaurant right there by the lobby. It's a lot more face-paced than the main kitchen, and they actually need me there. I've been working the salad and pizza line, and some nights I close the kitchen, meaning that I'm there until midnight and get to lock up and turn off everything.

If my thinking is correct, this Friday is pay day, and I'm super excited to see my check. lol

Anyway... that's all I can really think of right now.... ttfn

When life gives you lemons, make life take the lemons back!

Title quote courtesy of Portal 2. I haven't played it yet, but I've listened to my roommate at JWU play it, and I love the quotes from it. haha

Anyway, not really much to talk about right now... Just felt like writing a bit, but didn't have any ideas for Bleeding Hearts, Eternal Darkness, or anything else... Which is a bit depressing...

I work today and from 3-11:30 and then on Sunday from 7-3:30... I'm gonna be exhausted by the time I get a day off, and today I'll be able to see when I actually do have my days off next week... Hopefully they aren't on days when Anna has to work... that would irritate me a bit...

Anyway... Work at the Hotel is fairly decent so far. All they really have me doing is prep work, which is fine with me. I mean, if they wanna pay me 11.24/hour to be a prep cook, so be it. I'll give them my 8 hours and take their $88. The executive chef came up to me yesterday and told me that he's gonna move me around a bit while I'm working there. Instead of just being in the CDR kitchen and helping the banquet kitchen when I'm not needed (At all), he's gonna send me to Trevi 5 some days... I'm not entirely sure if I'll know that I'm going there before hand, or if somebody will just come up to me and tell me to go there, but I don't really care, cause I'm thinking there's a chance that I'll actually be on the line, which is what I love to do.

Well, that's about it for now... I'll be sure to try to update again soon... assuming there's more stuff to say. haha

TTFN

Company Orientation and my work schedule

So yesterday I had my company orientation for HE&R (Hershey Entertainment and Resorts). Let me tell you, that was the longest 4 hours of my life... On the bright side, I'm gonna see those 4 hours on my first paycheck, which I get the Friday after next.

After orientation, I went up to the Hotel to meet my boss and get a tour of the place. I was given menus to look over and shown around the kitchen, and then I was shown my schedule for this coming week. I work Monday 2-10:30, have Tuesday and Wednesday off, then I work Thursday-Saturday 3-11:30 and Sunday 7-3:30. To sum that all up for those of you who don't like to do math, I'm gonna be working my ass of to earn that $11/hour, but with 42.5 hours a week and the kickass addition to my resume, it's totally worth it.

I'm hoping to see Anna today, but I'm not sure how well that's gonna work with her working from 3-7 today... We're definitely gonna have to cherish every second we get together now that I'm gonna be working 40+ hours a week... On the bright side, I'll have money to take her out to do pretty much anything we might wanna do :)

Hotel Hershey

So for the past week, I've been stressing and getting all anxious because I was expecting a phone call from Chef Gladysz, the executive chef at the Hotel Hershey about going to work there this summer. Well, today I finally got the call from him! :)

I'm going to be working in the kitchen that serves the circular dining room and handles room service, so I'm gonna be working my ass off and making $11/hour. I'm gonna be super happy working there. haha

Not much else to report on... Me and Anna worked things out, like I knew we would, and everything seems to be panning out nicely for once. Anna's mom hates me because of how often Anna and I fought while I was down in Charlotte and acting like she doesn't, but that doesn't surprise me much. The way I look at it, if she doesn't wanna talk to me about it, that's her problem, not mine. It doesn't change the fact that I love Anna more than anything else in the world, and it doesn't change the fact that I plan on spending the rest of my life with her... So yeah...

Well, that's all I can think of to say, so I'm just gonna end now... TTFN

Rant... just so you know

So last night, me and Anna got into it a bit. My friends and I were sitting in the dining hall for 3, almost 4 hours last night just talking about whatever came to mind, which usually means theoretical physics, theology and philosophy. I don't know if any of you knows, or even cares, but I'm what could be called a Free Thinker, which is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or any dogma. To put it bluntly, believe in what has been proven to you, and don't let anybody else tell you what to believe.

Anna, being the wonderful person she is, asked what we were talking about, just to be nice and so she could comment on it. Naturally, I told her that we were discussing philosophy, physics, and theology. She didn't show any interest in any of that, but I, not having anything else to talk about and knowing that Anna doesn't like silence, started going into detail about what we were talking about. The freshest thing in my mind happened to be theology, so I told her what was said, which was a very bad thing to do. First, because Anna hates talking about anything that could make her start to question her beliefs. Second, because once I start talking about that kind of stuff, I don't stop until I say everything that's on my mind. Bad combination, as you can see.

Anyway, I started saying how if God had a Divine Plan, then that would show that we have no Free Will, but if we have Free Will, that shows that God doesn't have a Divine Plan. Anna argued that God knew what we were gonna do before we did it, but still gave us a choice (Don't ask me to explain how that works, because I have no idea how Christian logic works). I started saying that if God knew what we were gonna do in life, that there was no point in life then, and he should just create us in Heaven. Basically, I was giving a logical counterpoint to every argument that Anna made.

Now, Anna had gone through a very dark time a few years ago and religion pulled her out of it, and I had no idea how much she needed it. I hurt her really badly with what I had said... It didn't help that after she had calmed down a bit, I started talking about Stem Cell research, which, for some insane reason, she's completely against because it's "Playing God". I gave her a hypothetical situation asking "What if you gave birth and your child was blind, but the doctor told you, 'if we use stem cells, we can allow your child to see again.'?" This, of course, stemmed from the fact that a few months ago, Japanese scientists grew an eyeball in a lab using stem cells. That just threw her over the edge again, because in the scenario, what would be done for the best interest of the child went against Anna's beliefs.

What really got me, though, was that Anna shouted "Science can go screw itself!" and that cut me worse than anything she's ever said to me. She KNOWS what's happened in my past. She KNOWS why I'm unable to believe that there's a God. She KNOWS why I believe in science so vehemently.

Just to clarify for those of you who don't know, or for those of you who've forgotten: My brother died of Neuroblastoma (Cancer of the nervous system). EVERYBODY WE KNEW prayed DAILY for him to get better. I went to church every Sunday and poured my heart and soul into praying that he would get better. Wanna know what happened? He got worse. The ONLY thing that prevented him from dying sooner was the medicine that SCIENCE created. The ONLY thing that dulled the pain that he had to suffer through was the pain medication that SCIENCE created. The ONLY thing that could have saved my brother, and the only thing that can prevent other people from suffering like he did, is science. And Anna wants to say that "Science can go screw itself" She doesn't even realize that science is what saved our lives just over a year ago. She doesn't realize that science is what's keeping me alive right now. She doesn't even realize that science is the only reason I can talk to her on a daily basis.

And all she wants is a hug, and I can't fucking give her one. I can't show her how sorry I am for hurting her so much this year. I've been fucking miserable, and I have to hide it from everybody. I have to live with all of this and bite my tongue to keep people happy, because God forbid that I say what's on my mind anymore. It'll only piss somebody off and make them wanna slap me... This is why I need a punching bag.