Hello "my corner of the earth" I have been neglecting you. It's been a constant challenge to stay away from the bad, and I have been a loser most of the time, but there is always hope. So, I have massive amounts of free time, here is whats on my mind:

current song in my head: Just Like You by Three Days Grace

This is from @cattleya 's photoset

The ink that she has chosen says a lot about who she is and what she's about. Incredibly beautiful woman, incredibly beautiful set! This led me to doing a search on Chief Dan George and I found this:

When Christ said that man does not live by bread alone, he spoke of a hunger. This hunger was not the hunger of the body. It was not the hunger for bread. He spoke of a hunger that begins deep down in the very depths of our being. He spoke of a need as vital as breath. He spoke of our hunger for love.

Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world...

But with love, we are creative. With it, we march tirelessly. With it, and with it alone, we are able to sacrifice for others.

Automatic thought: Nobody loves me. Correction to the automatic thought: There are actually people out there who love me, but I'm constantly giving in to my addiction and therefore always feel helpless and lost. Correction to the corrected automatic thought: When will this fucking life end? I'm so tired of losing.

Next automatic thought:

School lets Texas police arrest Sikh boy after bully says he has bomb

Racism is not just an American issue, it's a global issue. The thing is, is it an issue at all? Maybe humans are supposed to be proud and territorial, and to quote the above Chief Dan George "What man fears, man destroys". Being that this happens so frequently, so easily, maybe we are designed to hate what we don't know. Accepting that is difficult and in fact I'm declaring myself a moron for even allowing the thought to enter my head. Love rules, love is amazing, love is life there is nothing else to it.

Automatic thought: Texas is a fucking stupid place to live in. Correction to the automatic thought: I have never lived there so how would I know? I'll bet there are plenty of open-minded people who live in Texas who are not racist bastards and who do not react out of fear.

Automatic thought to when I see the word "Texas": When I would drive to and from work, I would notice how some people driving trucks, would have a plastic set of testicles hanging from the trailer hitch, which was supposed to show that "My truck has balls!"

I never understood this logic because the plastic set of balls was extremely small in proportion to the actual truck. Well, wouldn't you know, I heard in Texas, some folk use the testicles of a bull and hang them on their truck.

Correction to the automatic thought: Not all people in Texas are racist redneck pigs who wouldn't know the concept of 'respect your fellow human beings' if it bit them on their eyeball.

Automatic thought: I love my New Jersey Devils!!

The sports industry is a HUGE money maker in the world. From a logic point of view, this goes to show how stupid we all are, spending crazy amounts of time, effort, money, on something that in the end, is just entertainment. But even further, what exactly does showing support for a team mean? I always tell my fellow greek citizens that the NFL in the US is no different from an organized religion. The amount of money spent on things from advertisements, jerseys, gambling (I know all too well about that), is so mind boggling, that knowing the actual figures I think would make me want to commit suicide. If I actually tracked the amount of money I've spent on gambling, jersey's etc. it would be well over five thousand dollars. You know what I could do with five thousand dollars right now? GET THE FUCK OUT OF GREECE is what I could do. It's interesting watching things change before my eyes. Sports talk shows, blogs, and it's all for what purpose? Making money? Or just entertainment?

Here's the thing though, one thing to counter all of this negative talk about the sports industry........The first hockey game I ever went to was back in 1993 and it was at the Meadowlands, um, now I think it has some other name, but anyway, that's where the New Jersey Nets played and the New Jersey Devils. I had heard of ice hockey before, but living in Kansas, wasn't really introduced to the sport. When I first moved to northeast PA, most residents there were locals, and New Yorkers who would go up there only for the weekend, but eventually moved up there to get away from the city life. As a result, there was a lot of New York programming on TV, including MSG network. The first hockey game I saw on TV was one with the New York Rangers. I said..hmm..I like this game being played...and immediately afterwards I thought........this team wearing the white jerseys with Rangers diagonally stitched on their jersey...I don't like them. Why? I have no idea but that's how I felt. Then I went to a Devils game, and I don't even know who the opponent was, and fell in love. For me, the Eastern conference final between the Devils and Rangers has got to be one of the most epic showdowns of sports history, even though my team lost in the end, it was so thrilling and full of nail-biting moments. Over the past few years, I've grown more accustomed to appreciating the sport as a whole, and all teams because of gambling. I used to be the type who wouldn't watch any other hockey game other than Devils games.

The above video is the game 6 double overtime goal scored by Jason Arnott, in which the New Jersey Devils were the champions that year. Again, what does this mean? I didn't win anything. I didn't contribute anything to society? I am not a part of this team? They don't know who I am. I am not a better or worse person for this event happening. Yet, I will always remember the moment that goal was scored and jumping out of my chair and screaming on the top of my lungs "YEEAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" This moment made me very happy. I still feel happy when I think about this moment. It was a moment that I felt I could own and well, there isn't a law that prohibits me from owning that moment, so me and other fans own it.

So, correction to automatic thought: While sporting moments can bring little tiny moments of happiness, never forget the big picture, that it is just entertainment.