The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule has many meanings. For the purpose of this blog I am going to be going off of the Christian quote/saying "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

As a child people are taught to treat others like they want to be treated and everything in the world will be great. People are taught to believe that what they want and value should be the same as what everyone else wants and values but it is not that simple. People all want different things and the way that I would like to be treated varies greatly from someone who has different expectations, interpretations, goals and mainly desires in life.

Some people want you to be honest
Some people want you to be nice
Some people don't want to talk to strangers
I love strangers
Some people want to be taken care of
Some people want to be left alone
Some girls want guys to buy them flowers
Some girls care about things that matter
Some men want to protect
Some men just want to love

This creates a problem because many people believe they are acting in the best interest of everyone because people see things through their own perspective. Some people feel special when they receive phone calls so they might call people they care about without thinking about how much they hate the phone. It is both difficult and important to always reflect on what you are doing and not how it effects you or what you believe is correct but how it effects the person you are dealing with (specifically in one on one situations.)

So I throw out 2,000 years of Christianity and propose a new Golden Rule.

"Treat people how they want to be treated, not how you want to be treated"

Magic vs Science

Today when I was at work I noticed a bunch of magnets on the back table. Being that the store was empty and I was pretty bored this became my subject of entertainment for a little while. When I was playing with the magnet I was talking to someone I worked with and he was saying that the first time he...lets say pleasured himself...as a young boy he thought he had invented it. When I heard that I thought about what people would think about magnets if they did not know anything about them.

I would think it was magic. When I held a magnet close to a key and the key moves toward it and was practically floating all I would think is magic. This is why it is so easy to astonish children. It is easy for them to believe because they want to believe they are not looking for a way out. The fact that a magnet works is just as magical as it is scientific...same with any kinda technology or natural phenomenon.

Maybe people should stop finding science instead of magic...and start accepting magic

Silly thing happened on a drive around town...part 2

So last night I got out of work and met up with Jay...we then decided to call someone else. They had been pulled over. So we decided to find them pulled over. We saw a car pulled over, followed it with me flashing my high beams through three turns and at least a couple of miles. We finally got to a driveway and they pulled in. I decided not to follow because at this point we realized this person may not have been our friend.

We were correct.

Throughout the remainder of the evening we passed at least 6 different cops on countless occasions. We eventually realized that something had to be going on. Then we realized that it was break for high schoolers.

So heres the knitty gritty:

More cops are out when high school kids are just trying to live their life and its messed up. Let the kids do what they want to do. Stop trying to teach people that they need to leave to be left alone. All of these students are going to be in a worse spot after the ticket then an adult would be and they are not bothering anyone...so stop with the ageism yo. Lets all have fun.

PS If you are a mall cop, it is important to know when you ask kids why they think it is okay to hang out at the mall you sound like a moron. The mall is a place to hang out, get over it.

PPS We also picked up a stranger and drove them home. He called himself Speedy...nice guy

Tail Lights

Today I came to the conclusion that if I do not die or get seriously injured in a car crash then Jacob has definitely touched me and everything will be okay (lost reference.) But really...I drive a lot, I could be a little safer and I drive sometimes when I am really tired I need to be careful.

Despite this fact my friends and I spend a lot of time driving around town. Tonight I was driving around with my friend Zac and we came around the corner. When we came around the corner I noticed that on this busy and not well lit road their was a car parked in the lane with a teenager getting in. This was not that dangerous or crazy except for the fact that the person was in park (no brake light) and their tail light was out.

I felt like we should let these people know that even though Zac believed they already knew that their was a problem with the car. He assumed it happened when they were changing the stock headlights...because they did change those. In an attempt to follow them I pulled into the Yorktown High School parking lot and eventually hunted them down and pulled next to them.

When they rolled down their window and we informed them about the tail lights the response from this high school girl was, "They are not broken they are tinted." Then she drove off as her friend yelled thanks anyways.

I will never be as cool as that girl for having tinted tail lights. But I am also more likely to survive driving around then I thought...people are a lot less safe then I am.

Really? Tinted tail lights?

Meeting People

I love meeting people. I even kind of miss being an obnoxious 15 year old in the Jefferson Valley mall or the Cortlandt Town Center that talks to everyone. The same people who I see and think, I can not believe I was one of those annoying little kids who think they are hot shit.

The reason I like meeting people so much is their is always so much ahead of the relationship (whether or not any type of relationship ever manifests.) When you meet someone their is a 50-50 chance (okay maybe not 50-50) that they can become your best friend or someone who you never see again. Everything that they say is so intriguing because you are trying to take the little knowledge you have about the person and build an entire back story. People learn about what they have in common and even more-so what makes them different. It especially helps that when I meet someone new I have an open mind. If a friend or acquaintance explained a theory or hobby I have a predetermined perspective on the ideas...this does not happen with new people.

I think the best example I could think of this is a college survival guide I once flipped through in Barnes and Nobles. One of the chapters one entitled "Beware of the Fake Relationship" ... or something like that. The idea is that when people see someone who they are attracted to they begin to create a back story and relationship that may be completely inaccurate. In the course of a philosophy lab you can see a cute girl, decide you have the same taste in music, think about how cool it would be if she came to a party at your house, debate whether or not your bad habits will bother her, plan out how you will defend your values and eventually decide not to even bother talking to her. It is better off to leave this without the unhappy ending.

I guess this blog does not have much of a moral...I just really enjoy meeting people and believe other people should too.

Tonight

My main plan for the evening is to tweet 310 more times...I am pretty excited about it.

and i feel like a tool but I am enjoying myself...

Shane Spencer, the Jets and Expectations

As a Yankee fan nothing was better for me than the summer of 1998. Actually that is not true, although the Yankees had a better record and stronger team in 1998 the greatest year to be a Yankee fan for me was 1996 when they played national league small ball, had a young team (Jeter was a rookie,) broke a long streak of unsuccessful years (unless you count the 1994 season that ended in the strike,) and still had John Wetteland.

I digress...In the summer of 1998 baseball had everything. Cal Ripken Jr. had became the Iron man, three players were all trying to beat the single season home run record and no one was talking about the steroids (Griffey was in it through August) and the Yankees had one of the best records of all time and then we entered September and got a glimpse of Shane Spencer or should I call him Roy Hobbs from the Natural.

Shane Spencer was an older outfielder who had came up from the minor leagues during September when baseball rosters change from 25 men to 40. He only had 67 official at bats in the month of September. In these 67 at bats he belted 10 home runs and three of those were grand slams. At that rate if he had the same number of at bats at Mark McGuire he would have hit 73 home runs. This guy was supposed to be the future of the Yankees. I remember everyone buying Spencer jerseys and talking about how he would be a power hitter that no one could even imagine after a few years in the majors. He went on to hit a home run in the 1998 post season but after that it was all down hill.

He played with the Yankees for a couple of years then moved around a lot until he finally retired after being hurt to often and striking out too much. It was a disappointment as a child because I thought that what was logical happened. It made sense that a right fielder who hits 10 home runs in September of his rookie year is the beginning of a dynasty. I realized that life did not make sense a long time before girls entered my life.

The question is how does this relate to the New York Jets? I guess I just hope that Mark Sanchez, Darelle Revis and the gang have a lot left in them for the next few years. They have a strong young team with a young coach and it is easy to say that they will be great. I just know now that may not be the case and can only hope they are not another case of Shane Spencer, because Shane Spencer's come along more often than Alex Rodriguez's do.

Inspired by Chuck Klosterman's What We Talk about When We Talk About Ralph Sampson from Eating the Dinosaur.

Formspring.me

When I decided to write a blog, I had a few hesitations. These hesitations included but were not limited too the fact that I have nothing to write about, no one who cares what I am going to write about and English was my least favorite subject.

I still decided to blog...and I kinda enjoy it when I actually do it. Today I signed up for something that seems even more pointless which means in the social networking world it should be huge in no time.

So if you want to ask me a question and feel like being awkward about it... formspring.me/deanmcgowan

ya heard?

Things That Annoy Me

1. Facebook groups that are protesting paying for Facebook. Why are you protesting something that is not happening?

2. www.Mydeathspace.com

3. The number of television shows i got into way to late (The Office, Lost and now 30 Rock)

4. The fact that I feel like I can never guess anyone's age if I do not meet them in a specific context.

5. When people tell me what to do.

6. When people tell anyone what to do.

7. That people suddenly care about celebrities after they die (People hated Michael Jackson for years.)

8. When I am out of the loop with what is going on. I should not care about pop culture but i really do.

9. When people stop at the yield sign by the Jefferson Valley Mall that has two lanes going into two lanes.

10. Haters...