Alexander Horschack and His Opinions of Things!

Sunday, 07 June 2009

  • Who Knows?


    I've entered a photo contest worth $1,000 for first prize. The criteria was to just choose your favorite photo you've ever taken, and since I used to spend hours a day during dark room photography in high school I thought I was cut out for this challenge.

    Please go and vote for my photo! If I win there's a good chance I'll take you out to lunch sometime. ; )

    Here's the description from the contest page, but do click on the link as well to get a full sized view:

    This is a B&W 35mm darkroom print which was developed without using image manipulation handiwork or digital editing. Nobody has ever successfully guessed the subject content and I've never told anyone what it is either. This is my favorite photograph of mine because of its strangely satisfying composition, fine clarity which reveals detailed texture, and the mystery which emanates from it despite that clarity and the high quality of development. I have often described this piece as a photographic riddle to the many challengers who have tried to solve it. Various guesses have included scattered books, a twisted bed frame, pieces of sandpaper, a wooden shavings, and a broken accordion.

    Don't forget that just clicking on the link won't vote for it. You have to find the vote button on the new page that opens when you click on my photo from this entry.

    I'm truly proud of this photo and I consider it one of the greatest pieces of art I've ever made. I wouldn't have asked for your help unless I thought I truly deserve to win, so please go and vote for me comrades!

    --

    UPDATE: Thanks to your help my photo has skyrockets from about 4400th place to about 90th place in just one day. Now the hard part begins since I've blown past the majority of really mediocre entries. Some of the photos placed above me are damned good and may deserve their slots, but some of them are honestly just boring Facebook photos of someone's best friend making out at a party with a compete stranger. I don't think that candid's like that have any place in a photo contest, and they especially don't deserve to win just because the entrant has 1,000+ Facebook friends! Please help to send me to the top by voting for my entry, and while you're at it look at some of the other photos in my current place range since some of them are truly quite impressive.

Monday, 30 March 2009

  • A conversation on the purpose of life.

    This is an instant messenger program I had with a friend who's name I've shortened to "DSA." It starts off a little dark but I promise it's not uncomfortable to read! I thought it nicely summarized my grand philosophy, since that was essentially what he asked me to do.

    DSA: Only confident ppl kill themselves cuz they know what's on the other side. Of course you see the flaw in that but I like to tell ppl that to make them grind some gears.

    Alex_Horschack: > < You're right though, tons of people WANT to commit suicide but they can't because it's too scary for them.

    DSA: There's no such thing as trying, you either do or don't. I've had a friend tell me the gun misfired 3 times and even if it DID he still is capable of taking his life. Here are the rules I live by:

    live for the moment
    change what u can
    accept what you can't
    attitude and confidence really are everything
    and life is as relevant as this next statement: "i am a banana."
    It's a lot simpler than ppl make it out to be. And in the end it really doesn't matter.

    DSA: But do tell me what your outlook on life is.

    Alex_Horschack: ok, well...

    In this universe of ours, there is one phenomenon, which is nature.

    Within nature there are two other phenomena: life, and non-life.

    Non-life is pretty chill: it's very stable even though it moves and changes forms via a host of processes.

    Life is fragile, and always worries about it's own well-being.

    Meanwhile, while life is flipping out 24/7 about how it's going to survive Earth's eventual Venus-like transformation into a greenhouse planet, or any of the other disasters that are bound to eventually consume all of the life that we currently know to exist for sure...

    Non-life just continues to do it's thing and it could really give a flying fuck about what happens to life.

    Comets are going to keep following the laws of inertia, planets will continue to rotate on their axises and revolve around stars in galaxies that will continue to revolve in Galaxy clusters.

    With that said, life is no more or no less important than non-life from a truly unbiased point of view and as such, in order to justify any claim at some sort of "purpose" one must shrink his or her range of concern from a universal perspective, down to a within-life perspective in order to get anywhere.

    I am a unit of life. Thus, my immediate concerns should be aimed at preserving and benefiting the notion of life itself in all of it's forms.

    First and foremost, I should seek to preserve and benefit my own life since I am an active campaigner for life itself, which unfortunately is something that most other organisms aren't able to be due to their lower levels of awareness. Next, I should benefit my species, which is most able to to preserve and benefit the interests of life of all sorts. Then, I should benefit species that are symbiotic to my own which will support my own species directly or indirectly, and finally I should seek to benefit entire environmental ecosystems which are supportive of the species that are symbiotic to my own.

    Those are the things that should and do concern me the most.

    And, in my opinion, that's what every other human being should be concerned with as well since we represent the most conscious and self-aware manifestations of the phenomenon of life that we've yet to know of in the entire universe. We are like Congressional representatives for life, preserving and advancing the agenda of life in a universe primarily dominated by unconcerned yet unbiased, unemotional non-life.

    DSA: Then do you accept that in the end it really doesn't matter? Whatever will be will be...and you can only make do with what you have and make the best of it?

    Alex_Horschack: That's my focus.
    We have life.
    Let's make the best of that!
    XD

Thursday, 12 February 2009

  • I've just made myself rather vulnerable to hundreds or thousands of people...

     

    1. I finish every shower with 5 minutes of the coldest water that will come out.

    2. For the last four years I have refused to buy new clothing except in the case of underwear and socks. I only wear second-life cycle clothing & T-shirts that I get for free. I don't do it to be a self-righteous scenester, but because I think it'd be arrogant and gluttonous of me to encourage the production of new clothing when there are literally warehouses of functional clothing sitting wasted in every city.

    3. I think environmentalism and civil rights are swell as hell, and alliteration is my favorite poetic device.

    4. I sure like going out!

    5. I'm evangelically agnostic. This means that I'm agnostic myself, and that I want to spread my philosophy to as many others as are willing to listen (for their own benefit and the benefit of others and not for my own). This does not mean that I rudely approach strangers without any prior introduction to lobby them to give up their spiritual beliefs and to take up my own in the manner that so many 'evangelical' theists do.

    6. I despise Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Frito-Lay, Hershey's, Nestle, etc.

    7. I used to play Magic the Gathering fervently as a tween.

    8. In the summer after my freshmen year of college I rode a bicycle from Tampa, FL to Stone Harbor, NJ without any friends or starting money.

    9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from Nintendo 64 and the original Pokemon Red & Blue Gameboy games are what inspired me to ride my bicycle from Tampa, FL to Stone Harbor, NJ without any friends or starting money.

    10. I have a large T-shaped scar on my right shoulder (your left) left over from a horrendous car crash involving a minivan packed with 8 teenagers.

    11. My older memories were jumbled into an impossible order following that car crash. There doesn't seem to be any affect on my post-crash memories.

    12. I can never find either my keys, wallet, cell phone, or car. I never have all four at once.

    13. You look absolutely breathtaking, and you're extremely talented and interesting on top of that!

    14. My worst fear used to be "dark water," so I intentionally started training to become a beach life guard to address the problem head-on. I made it onto the squad and conquered my fear, thankfully before that awful movie called "Dark Water" ever came out.

    15. I came up with an original 7-tone musical scale which doesn't resemble any of the Grecian modes or any of the blues modes.

    16. I despise pharmaceutical companies.

    17. When I was a freshmen in high school I was illegitimately diagnosed with depression and prescribed to Prozac against my will. I was living at a boarding school at the time, and so my hall-parent was informed of the medication I was taking, and mistook an occurrence of average teenage angst as a "threat to myself and others." As a result, the school I was attending locked me in the health clinic for three days against my will, and finally told me I was going to stay with my family for a week to "cool-off" before returning to campus and continuing with my courses. That was a lie, and as soon as I got off the plane my grandparents informed me that the school was never going to allow me to return in the first place. Rather than filing the episode as an expulsion, they offered my family the option to sign a document stating that I'd left the school of my own free will and with my family's support.

    18. I want to make it my life's ambition to break the system of 2 party politics in the United States.

    19. I'm not vegetarian or vegan, but I'm very suspicious of the quality of meat in the United States. I'm picky about what kinds of animal foods I'll eat.

    20. I'm more in favor of legally un-recognizing ALL "marriages" than I am in favor of legalizing gay "marriage".

    21. Until that happens, I'm a ferocious supporter of legalizing gay marriage.

    22. I believe that the more truly multicultural we become, the less of ourselves we will invest into an arbitrary religious, national, or corporate ideology. This is because we will and should value our own heritage less in order to recognize and psychologically accommodate for the collective importance of all world cultures and their achievements and offerings to humanity.

    23. I believe that an organized religion, a state or or national government, and a corporation are all essentially the same things.

    24. I'm very slowly and reluctantly giving into what seems to be an inevitable agnostically-pantheist-human transcendentalist sense of spirituality. I can use several hyphens in one sentence and use lots of lofty and pretentious words all in a row so you should think I'm great now.

    25. I'll just bet that one day most humans will have certain types of synesthesia.                   

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Sunday, 11 January 2009

  • Why Guys Prefer Virgins

    (This entry is an edited repost and was originally inspired by an entry from relationshipnoob.)

    I used to be a hopeless romantic. The only difference now is that I'm far from hopeless! XD

    The controversy surrounding the ideals of virginity are tightly interwoven with the Disney canon-esque hopeless romantic mentality. It's well known that young women in mainstream US society (do not read as mainstream media) are taught to value their virginity, and to lock it up tightly for as long as possible. They're instructed to prize their unbroken hymens as their single most valuable possessions, and they're encouraged to imagine their first sexual encounters as the most mind-blowingly overwhelming experience of their entire lives... which will forever solder their souls to those of their first and only sexual partners!

    I myself grew up in this state of mind regarding my own virginity. It made sense to me that one partner's virginity was compromised by his or her partner's lack of thereof when it came to the magic and fireworks and all of the other sorts of things that come packaged with the innocence and passion of the first time experience. I took me a very long time to realize that other guys weren't on the same page that I was. But surely, I reasoned, my female peers who were also saving themselves would respect and admire my resolve as well as my appreciation for the potentially life-changing bonding experience that the first time offers.

    It turns out that I was dead wrong. Every partner I've ever gotten close to couldn't care less about whether or not I had retained my virginity, even as they cherished and clung to their own for dear life while simultaneously harboring 'perfect' first-time fantasies. Some of these girls even admitted they'd prefer a sexually experienced partner when it did come time to turn in their V-cards.

    Not coincidentally, it seems as though many guys have a preference for virgins. Some guys won't date anyone at all unless she's still 'pure.' So what's the mechanism at work behind this glaring contradiction of values between the sexes? How could it be that experienced females are 'impure' yet experienced males are 'superior?' How can so many guys move from one virgin to the next, reasoning that only 'pure' girls are worthy of their courtship when they're leaving behind a trail a of 'impurified' past partners who, in their eyes, are no longer fit to move on the way they have have themselves?

    On a superficial level, I think it's easier for guys to move from one virgin to the next when they date partly because we're encouraged to by outdated, yet self-perpetuating standards in the media and in mainstream society.

    On a more realistic level, I think some guys do it because they actually do have a sensitive side (regardless of whether or not they describe it that way themselves) and because it's sometimes difficult to come to terms with the fact that when you choose to go to bed with an experienced partner, someone else was there before you were. And perhaps this amazing girl standing in front of you (or lying on top of you, or under you... or in cowgirl position on top of you) has invested a great deal of her emotional self into another person before the two of you ever even crossed paths. In other words, perhaps guys who move from one virgin to the next are uncomfortable with themselves and their own ability to cope with the emotional taxation of dating a sexual peer.

    If you're not 100% comfortable with your own history and the way that our true-life behaviors sometimes contradict the hypothetical ideals we try to claim, it can be even more uncomfortable to accept your new partner's honest-to-goodness, nonfictional history. It might just seem a lot easier to lots of us to be selfish by starting 'fresh' with a virgin every time in order to avoid the psychological strains of carrying someone else's extra baggage in addition to your own. However, I think that it will eventually retard your social development if you can't learn to accept yourself and others for who they are and what most of us have really lived through... regardless of what we've convinced ourselves and others about our so called 'true' values. The truth is that our actions reflect our true values, and not what we say our true values are.

    Please recommend this entry by clicking on the heart below!

Saturday, 27 December 2008

  • Xanga-Sponsored Sexism.

    Doesn't anybody else think that the new "MANCOUCH" -ish site needs a thoughtful, creative name change before anybody starts to notice that it's there?

    I had submitted an older article to get featured there because I thought that it challenged preconceptions about what sort of content could fit under the umbrella of "guy topics" and I wanted to send the new site off in the right direction.

    Based on the nature of the comments I received, and on the fact that several of them were from women, it doesn't make much sense to me that Xanga would sponsor such a blatantly sexist site as one of it's 'home blogs.'

    The content so far has included:

    sports (the topic of that previous entry of mine that I shamelessly promoted just above)
    video games
    clothing
    cosmetics
    the most attractive women imaginable

    These all sound like awfully gender-neutral topics to me...

    So what do you think, favorite community of mine? Should we lobby for a name-change? And if so, what'd be better than "MANCOUCH?" I'll be the first to propose! This idea of mine will keep the original attitude of MANCOUCH but will simultaneously satisfy standards for politically correctness, make hilarious commentary on the very nature of political correctness, and make hilarious commentary on the nature of the controversial -ish sites.

    MAN-ISH COUCH

    And while we're at it, what do you guys think of "Gender-equal Parentaroo?" Doesn't quite roll off the tip of your tongue the way "Momaroo" does...

    Please recommend this post by clicking on the heart just below!

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

  • Hookups and Rebounds, FWBs, Crushes, and true Love! How do you know who you really are?

    (This post was inspired by an entry from nobody_911)



    I remember that every time I've ever had it bad for a girl, whether she returned that affection or not, each new crush was worse than the last. At one point with one girl it got so bad that I couldn't even fathom any form of appreciation higher than what I was feeling for her at that time. I thought it was the end-all and be-all, that I had somehow reached an even higher level of appreciation for another person than anything anyone had ever felt before!

    But I got over each and every one of those girls, typically slowly and painstakingly if it hadn't worked out, and even more slowly and painstakingly if it had worked out but was finally over.

    And after that, not right away but still every time... there'd be always be a new crush that felt at least infinity-times heavier than the previous crush that had itself supposedly transcended all previous precedents of human love or admiration throughout the history of all things.

    And although I admit that I may have started off with those reactions the first couple of times around the track because I was one of... those... (lets just say I was not an unshakable warrior stud who always knew exactly what to say and do) but to be perfectly honest I don't suffer at all from a deficiency in game or self-confidence whatsoever any more.

    I won't hesitate nor will I feel abundantly cocky to admit for the purpose of this discussion that I 'get it' now when it comes to dating and even singular gratifying hookups or 'catch and release' style teasing (or whatever else we could dream up). Just because I characteristically feel intense emotions towards a girl which tend to linger for months after a relationship or a rejection, I don't believe that I've ever been in such a mess that I couldn't go out and find a new love or a meaningless make out partner or whatever else (nor do I think I've been in such a mess that  I couldn't do those things with complete sincerity to boot). In fact, I don't only believe it, I know it for sure since that's how it's been. And I'm not the only person that will tell you I have high standards and good values when it comes to choosing the women I want in my life. Once more, after retrospective exploration of these memories, I feel that not once have I resorted to a so-called 'rebound.' Although my feelings for lovers past may have been lingering even as the flame of new loves and friends-with-benefits situations ignited, those partners were in every sense separated and vindicated of second rate status in my eyes because I approached those situations and treated those individuals with complete sincerity and respect every time. When something goes down (or UP! couldn't resist...XD) between two single individuals, that's all about the two of them only, and that's how those individuals should approach one another (regardless of followup intentions) if they want it to be worth any of their time whatsoever.

    I may have thought that I was in love every single time (save for those deliberate singular hook ups that were fully sincere and compassionate no matter what you think), but just because I felt even more strongly for someone else later in life, it doesn't mean that I was never in love in the first place. I could have been validly in love every single time, because I didn't have to question myself or double think it once. And years later, in retrospect, no matter how young or naive or inexperienced I was (ok fine... let's say starting with crushes after middle school XD) in any of those cases, I still feel 100% confident that I knew exactly what those feelings were.

    When dealing with the sometimes intangible nature of love, it seems to me that if you have to ask yourself if you're in love in the first place, then that serves as piece of evidence for the counter case all on its own.

    What do you guys think? Can people be validly in love with every successive crush and romantic partner in their lives? Is it possible to start new relationships or to have hookups that don't count as rebounds when you still carry feelings for someone from your past? If so, can you pull it off yourself? Can someone be in love even if he or she has to double guess him or herself a bunch of times?

    Please recommend this post by clicking on the heart just below!

Saturday, 20 December 2008

  • Undersexualization as the Cause of Oversexualization in the Media

    (This post was inspired by an entry from Simbathe2nd. It is a form of tribute and an apology for leaving my comment box unguarded with a friend of mine in the room when I got up to use the rest room.)

    My own sentiments are a bit different than     Simbathe2nd's. I agree that there's so much overt sexuality in the mass media that it constitutes a form of brainwash, but anyone's own feelings countered to that "sex sells" culture also has its roots in a preconditioned attitude preoccupied with some sort of an unconditional belief (the kind typically procreated by the very same brainwashing tactics). In this case, it's the notion that nudity is analogous to sexuality to begin with, as well as the notion that sexuality is inherently impure.

    Simbathe2nd made reference to shows like Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, as well as songs like "I Kissed a Girl," and movies like Brokeback Mountain and Chicago as examples of overly sexualized messages in the media. I must comment that "I Kissed a Girl" (as annoying a song as it is when it follows you into the club, your student center, your grocery store, and even your bank) and Brokeback Mountain were both constructed and distributed the way that they were very deliberately not only for profit, but much more so to raise awareness on the issues surrounding LGBT civil rights. They might not fit your personal taste the same way they don't fit mine, but I'd be wary to accuse their creators of making them with some kind of "la-dee-da! Look how much attention I can get for talking about sex" approach. Media like that might seem up in your face, but that's because it has to be in order to raise awareness and to change popular attitudes towards the subject content for the benefit of all. Doesn't anyone remember "Diff'rent Strokes?"
     
    And even when producers' don't have a just cause underlying their intentions, all that skin in the media wouldn't be so effective in the first place if it didn't seem taboo because of the widespread popular attitudes that nudity or sexuality are somehow or other... naughty. ; )

    In order for the masses to respond to these forms of advertising by spending the way that corporations want them to, they must not only believe that it's trendy or cool to be blatantly sexual, but they must first and foremost agree  with critics of nudity and sex in the media that showing skin or discussing sexual topics, as you put it in so many words, negates their inherent "purity."

    It seems to me that sexuality as depicted in media owes most of its thanks to those that fight it and speak out against it the loudest of all.

    What do you guys have to say to all of this? Do you believe that nudity automatically constitutes sexuality in the first place? Or is that way just because we already assume that it does...

    Please recommend this post by clicking the heart just below!

Friday, 19 December 2008

  • STOP MAKING BABIES.

    I refuse to ever have biological children of my own. There are far too many children in the world who aren't being taken care of. Despite the way others describe how they just truly feel driven to produce their own offspring, I feel they are letting their hormones get the best of them and twisting their heads into subconsciously thinking that their genes are somehow special and that it's of the utmost importance to preserve them.

    Granted, I only understand the maler end of the sex-continuum when it comes to reproductive feelings. I am fully prepared to concede that I will never, never understand a woman's natural urge to produce and care for her own children. I won't attempt to claim that I know the other side of it, but I urge both hopeful fathers and mothers-to-be to hear me out nevertheless, and to measure your own feelings and opinions against only yourself to decide if you truly 'need' or even want to reproduce some day, regardless of your gut intuition.

    I know I could catch a great huge ton of flack from lots of parents who have already committed to the choice of having biological children of their own for saying this... but it seems incredibly selfish and self-important to me to for anyone to actually plan out a pregnancy with the current state of the world's youngest demographic the way that it is.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no fan of unplanned pregnancies! But those who don't think things through are more than satisfying our birthrates in great excess. There's always the argument that dumb ass-hats who literally fuck too much for their own good aren't prime candidates for people-making as far as genes go, but that's not valid since the biggest contributor to unplanned pregnancies (and STD infection to boot) is a lack of comprehensive sex education. This next part's important so I'm going to quintuple-highlight it; let's see if you can make the connection between the last sentence and the next...

    The most significant cause of high abortion rates is a lack of a comprehensive sex education.

    While we continue to work on achieving higher levels of awareness regarding the comprehensive sex-education curriculum, I'm a firm believer that the rest of us can provide the most effective parenting strategies and loving environments that will shape our next generations' experiences and attitudes despite what their natural parents might have had in store for them.

    Let's please use our giant homosapien brains to overcome our instinctual urges so that we can take care of the human beings our neighbors have already invited into this troubled world!

    Let's fight unplanned pregnancies (and STD infection) by supplying comprehensive sex-education to the masses (abstinence+ is the most superior form). Let's fight world starvation and famine and undereducation and human trafficing and on and on by adopting the children that already exist or who are already coming into the world for sure. And let's stop treating people who have made mistakes without ever first having a proper education as though they're somehow inherently worse than the rest of us or incapable of intelligent thought once they're supplied with equal access to information!

    I personally hope to adopt as many children as is within my means over the course of my lifetime..

    My first adopted child will be a daughter who I will name "Anjou."

    So what do you guys think about all of this?

    Please recommend this post by clicking on the heart below!

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

  • Santa doesn't care about you, human beings do.

    (This article was inspired by an entry by sarahb_86)

    I certainly believe in the spirit of giving. In fact, I'm characteristically preoccupied by it. I want more than anything to encourage empathetic humanism by setting an example and providing to those in need.

    You'd think that I get all giddy every year once holiday toy drives roll around and donation stations are set up outside of every major grocery and retail outlet so that the underprivileged children of the world can wake up to presents under their trees left by Santa just like everybody else. But I don't.

    I think that if you don't or you can't or you won't care about or think about or provide to the unfortunate and the destitute at any time of the year (and not just when corporate consumerism tells you to) then you shouldn't be in charge of telling the recipients of human kindness where their donations came from!

    I don't at all like the idea of propagating a culture of expectation from the mysterious beyond. I think it's destructive to teach children that gifts will appear because a magical figure living in frigid isolation is capable of providing for all the world's children regardless of the fact that their parents are in the worst financial crunches of their lifetimes.

    By recycling these myths for the sake of cuteness and tradition and offering a 'normal' childhood to their offspring, parents all over the country are eating their own words now that they can't back their shit up.

    It's a terrible idea to let misguided but well-meaning donors continue to mislead these children into thinking there's always going to be a holiday safety net when there won't always be. It teaches dependence.

    Whenever there is a holiday safety net providing for you though, I can tell you who's not responsible for it...

    Human beings care about human beings, Santa Claus does not.

    I understand that children will grow up and eventually understand that Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Great Pumpkin are just fairy tales, but they'll have fond emotional memories of these cancerous fairy tales, and they'll pass them on to all of the children in their lives.

    Teach children where their livelihood comes from... from other human beings who are concerned about them and care about them enough to reach out to them with provisions (be they parents or church organizers or complete strangers). Let's stop treating children like it will take them a lifetime to understand the ways of the world. If we treat them like they're capable of understanding, then they'll understand much more rapidly and much more fully. And they'll feel grateful for it. They'll feel respected and provided for and loved. I think that's a hell of a lot better way for our children to feel versus expectant and entitled.

    I don't have a problem with holiday decorations and music and food and parties and togetherness and the things that originally made the winter holidays of any given culture so great. I'm not against the holiday spirit at all! But let's please take the fairy tales out of it and build stronger communities by giving credit where it's due: to each other.

    Please recommend this entry by clicking on the heart just below!

Alex_Horschack

  • Visit Alex_Horschack's Xanga Site
    • Name: Alexander
    • Birthday: 10/14/1987
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 7/15/2008
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About Me

  • Psychology student, activist, musician, innovator, entrepreneur, adventurer, amateur chef, exercise and nutrition enthusiast, Japanese language student... It could keep going forever!

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