Let your hair down: 745

You never get what you want in this life, so why not
shake your hair loose on a boat at play in dawn light?

--From The Selected Poems of Li Po--

Children should be taught the importance of decorum; but adults, who've seen the way the world works; how can they take it so seriously? Some people obsess over it, in a way that is, dare I say, childish.

Democracy: 2010

The governor of my state, Charlie Crist, announced he would make a political announcement today, so I decided to go. There was a lot of security around:



Also, there were a lot of reporters:







There were probably as many reporters, campaign staff, and security people as regular citizens who showed up. Here is a view early on:

After Crist supporters, the biggest group by far, were people with very generic signs, trying to save local health departments. I'm guessing they were given the day off to go and "protest" here.



There was one person against oil drilling:



One person for pot:



And some people for clean energy:



An independent thinker:



And a conservative for Crist:



Most of them seemed nice and cheerful, but some of the USF students were shouting things like "Muslim President!" and "Socialism!", being in support of those things.

There were some signs for teachers for Crist and women for Crist. I thought there were a lot, but at one point I was up on the stage:



And they told everyone to get off who wasn't a teacher (and invited), and it turned out there were only about ten of them.

I assume they filled out the stage with campaign workers. This guy was is a suit handing out signs and he ended up holding a sign on stage:



When Crist came, he shook his hand.

I'm guessing there were 300 people there, including reporters and security. Here's a video where I spun around:

Eventually Crist shows up, and I got to see his ear:



He gives a speech and announces he's running for Senate as an Independent. It was a strange announcement, because he didn't pause to allow people to clap, or really "announce" anything. It was more like he mentioned his running as an Independent in passing.

At one point he talked about how we need "a new tone", how people should be able to disagree while still being civil. As he goes on people start chanting "Crist! Crist! Crist!" and I chant "Rubio!" (his Republican opponent) and boo. I'm not a Republican, I just don't like Crist. And I'm not going to apologize for booing, because this was an event open to the public, for a politician who loves to say how he's always listening to the people. Well, I had something to say, and I booed. It's how I express myself, *swear word* *swear word*.

I was called a "moron", someone pushed me (accidentally?), one of the teachers on stage turned around and told me to shut up; someone even made a crack about how there were lots of idiots like me where he came from, Alaska. So much for "a new tone".

I think I was the only person up there booing. There were a few people with Rubio signs off in the distance.



I asked one, why they weren't up there booing and they said they weren't a rabble-rouser. I guess that means I am one.

Here's a shot I took right after Crist left; I think it captures pretty well how many people were there:



Anyway, I had fun exercising my right to free expression. Yay Democracy!

Talking to extraterrestrials: circa 740

Staying the night at Summit-Top Temple,
you can reach out and touch the stars.

I venture no more than a low whisper,
afraid I'll wake the people of heaven.

--From The Selected Poems of Li Po--

Perhaps the universe is filled with intelligent creatures, but clearly we cannot be numbered among them. To imagine a sky filled with sentient beings, all of them angels and none of them demons, how much hubris and stupidity does that take?

Instead of trying to contact them, it is better by far to let them sleep.

Friendship: 1350

"Well," Fei said to him, "do you still think me impetuous?" "I harped on your failings so you'd learn some tricks," Xuande said, and Zhang Fei roared with delight.

--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

You don't need self-help books when you have good friends.

Pop music: 1858

The arrangements having been carried out as pre-ordained, the marriage took place in the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace. A little before eleven the great Officers of State and others who were to take part in the ceremonial began to arrive at Buckingham Palace, while the band of the Grenadier Guards played Mendelssohn's famous "Wedding March" in the quadrangle. Soon afterwards, the principal actors began to quit the Palace for St. James's.... ...Lastly appeared the Queen, and her daughter the bride, in a state carriage with cream coloured horses.

--From The Gentleman's Magazine--

Don't you hate it when people use pop music in their wedding ceremony instead of something traditional?

How to please your man: 1858

In the first place, young ladies do not, as a rule, neglect any means of improving their looks; but no Japanese young ladies, even after they are "out," think of taking this method of increasing their powers of fascination; they color their cheeks and lips, and deck their hair, but it is not until they have made a conquest of some lucky swain, that, to prove their devotion to him, they begin to blacken their teeth and pull out their eyebrows. He, privileged being, is called upon to exhibit no such test of his affection; on the contrary, his lawful wife having so far disfigured herself as to render it impossible that she should be attractive to any one else, seems to lose her charms for her husband as well; so he places her at the head of his establishment, and adds to it an indefinite number of handmaidens, who neither pull out their eyebrows nor blacken their teeth; hence it seems not difficult to account for the phenomenon which is universally admitted, that while Japanese wives are celebrated for their virtue, their husbands are no less notorious for their licentiousness.

--From Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's mission to China and Japan--

Don't you hate how some people let themselves go once they're in a relationship?

Nature's mistake

A: "People think Nature is somehow perfect, but she makes mistakes all the time; she's just really good at getting rid of them."

B: "Perhaps the human race, and every other living thing, are mistakes of Nature; ones she's having a hard time getting rid of."

Ectasy: 1595

It's dark, you're at a club, and some shirtless guy with a smooth chest and muscles, wearing fake angel-wings, picks you up.

Respect: 1315

It is possible to respect God and other people at the same time.

Gender bending: 1595

It wasn't considered moral (or legal) for women to perform on stage, so all shows were drag shows.

Now, imagine Romeo and Juliet like this:



...because it was the norm.

Against tradition: circa 400 BC

The Confucians say: "The superior man must use ancient speech and wear ancient dress before he can be considered benevolent." But we answer: The so-called ancient speech and dress were all modern once, and if at that time the men of antiquity used such speech and wore such dress, then they must not have been superior men.

--From The Mozi--

Being against "tradition for tradition's sake" is a tradition going back almost 2500 years.