J. Ojanpera

Balance seems an unachievable goal most of the time. There are so many things that pull us away from our various techniques to stay balanced. It is possible for me, but balance is fleeting. It feels more like a tight rope walk with a stiff cross wind. I have four daughters, a wife, a dog, a cat, and a rabbit. All of them need me to some degree every day. (the rabbit is sweet, but my least favorite because I am the "only one" that can clean her cage) I love my job very much, but it is demanding, and overwhelming at times. My best shot at balance comes in the wee hours of the morning; the time that I would rather be sleeping. For some reason, probably my age and imbalance, I wake up between three and four. I decided last night that I would stay up, and perhaps find that place inside where peace and balance can be found. If Spring ever comes, I will most likely stay outside with my dog, Loki. We are the only male specemins, so we're pretty tight. I think this will be the be

Who will be to blame for the next big terror attack? I have a guess: anyone, with the exception of who actually orchestrated it. The history of the US is rife with credible examples of intentional war-making efforts. Perhaps the worst in recent memory is 9/11. The conspiracy theorists can't be wrong every time. Scientists who specialize in explosives, proffesionals in building demolition, and the "coincidental" military scenarios that mirrored exactly what happened that day cannot all be wrong. There is such a thing as odds, and when you have a government that is bent on world domination, coupled with undeniable evidence against them, the odds have to at least be even. Let's say that 50% of all wars America has fought were legit, and the other half were intentionally fostered in using "terrorist" attacks. When I was in school, 50% was a fail. The sad part is that I was being far too generous giving them only 50% culpability. The term "false flag attack

Education is important. It can make or break a society. There is evidence all over the world that when there is no form of organized education, the people are generally less advanced. It doesn't make them less intelligent, only unaware of things beyond their isolated culture. I am not a proponent of spreading democracy as a means for educating people. This notion has failed repeatedly, and usually turns out worse. People need to be taught where they are to help them better understand their own culture. Americans are fortunate to have every resource available to mankind at their disposal, and also for free. We have the freedom to educate ourselves indefinitely, even after we complete the free teaching. There comes a point where education has to be applied. No matter how far you go, no matter what degrees you posess, it has to equal something unique and real. There has to be a time when we learn everything we can from our teachers, and become teachers ourselves. Whether you are teac

Revolution is generally thought of as a vehicle for violent change. The term is applied correctly most of the time; especially when there is an actual revolution going on. The kind where despots are un-seated, regimes are replaced and a new group takes the reigns. There have been plenty of examples of this type of revolution for us to look at. There are a handful of groups that wish this on America. I am not the biggest fan of the way our government works -or doesn't- and I don't appreciate how tiny each of our voices are. Money, and a convoluted system of capitalism have obviously rendered them useless, and us subserviant. I have a feeling that we will be invaded by a foreign enemy before we experience a homegrown revolution. If you move past the anger of how ridiculous it all is, you might see that we are in no place to tell our government what to do. Though we posess the right to bear arms, we are disallowed equal arms. I can't afford an Apache, much less a fleet of the

I often wonder why tattoos have become so popular. Everywhere I go, I see these permanent markings on people. The art itself is as old as humanity, but in the beginning there was a reason. Ancient tribal peoples used tattooing as a visible symbol of rank, or as a sign of what tribe you belonged to. Today, it is generally assigned to prison inmates for the same basic reasons, only they add religious affiliation and possibly time served to date. Why are everyday people getting them? I do not know. Tattoos hurt. The average tattoo gun runs at around 500 rpm's. You think that would equal 500 needle punctures per minute, right? Wrong. The needles used in a tattoo gun vary from one, up to thirteen. The average artist uses seven needles, as it is good for both lining, and shading. My math says that a one hour long tattoo, using seven needles, equals 210,000 individual punctures. Why would you do that to your skin? My record is four and a half hours in one sitting. That equals 945,000 ne

Spring is almost here. Winter never puts up much of a fight in the Deep South. It yields like a car to a train. Spring represents new life. Some of us get married, some of us dig in the earth. If only we could keep a Spring mentality, even in the darkest of Winters, we might be able to stay commited. If for nothing else; we might remember the vows we swore at the fiery beginnings of our weddings, or the promises we make and fully intend to keep. The truth is that seasons do change, and so do our memories. I have been reminded about certain parts of our vows through the years (always gently), and when I hear it I get a sense of relief for the beauty of what we vowed to each other. In our case, the relationship was already built to the point of the vows being more of a confirmation than a beginning. We have attempted to shape our relationship around those words, and for the most part it has served us well. It has been far from perfect, but we vowed to work it out no matter what we "

Karma, and the way it works can only be defined through speculation or in hind-sight. It goes by many different names and phrases, but it is best summed up with one word. Karma is an organism that pays us back for the way we played the hand we were dealt. Like God, karma is sovreign and indiscriminate. It's judgements can be instant, or they can take a lifetime. Like it or not; it always comes back around. Carnival Cruise Lines has had some issues of late. First it was the Triumph. It broke down somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, and had to be towed to Mobile port, in the humble city of Mobile, Al. The ship was able to be towed here because we have a $29 million cruise terminal. This cruise terminal was built around the promise of a cruise line taking up residence in our city. The problem with this situation began when the great leaders of our city decided to go the "Field of Dreams" route by building this terminal with nothing more than a hand shake with Carnival. They st

The term "failed state" has many interpretations. It is generally assigned to nations that cannot sustain order through responsible government, infrastructure, social programs, or protect itself from military sources outside of the popular army. For instance, when rebel forces topple an already weak government, the people generally flee, creating a refugee situation. This is the case in Syria at the present. In the case of Afghanistan, they haven't been given the opportunity to flourish on their own due to international interlopers, bent on robbing them of the potential mineral assets their land could possess. The puppet government that the US has installed is largely ineffective; as usual. The greatest question that remains to be answered is what will become of their sovreignty when the American death squads and hunters depart? Have we doomed them to failure? Once again, American greed forced upon a culture through war has yielded little. The largest consequences for t

This site wants comments: http://www.tldm.org/forms/Feedback.htm   Take a glance at a few paragraphs and see if these people qualify for non-profit staus, as their address implies. They need attention. They need feedback desparately. I was going to make fun of the new Pope today because it is truly a ridiculous thing. I was combing through Catholic church statistics, wondering why everything I read was about decline and disappearance. They are committing slow suicide on all counts. Not that all major religions aren't doing the same; Catholics are more prominent. It's all about money. What if they sell the Vatican and all the golden crap inside? That could feed every starving child in the world for years. They won't do that; they have to save their cash for the defectors that quit buying trinkets. It's happening... So I'm innocently looking for statistics, and I found some, but the content of this site is horrifying. It is obviously a hack-job. The scary part is

Sunday morning is especially good for me and my family. We are all together, and we work together. We go on missions, do mass cleanings, pull weeds and burn stuff. Little girls like to play with fire as much as boys do. It is a real-life way to preserve the family. Isn't that the evangelicals' biggest complaint, other than a woman's body, or keeping their laws in place? Today, if you are wasting half your day at the temple, your family is most likely divided by age. This same phenomenon divides on a much larger scale than a two million dollar building full of people doing their duty every week. First off, this group cannot keep their hands out of my government. I don't want your voices heard in Washington any more, because you are irrational zealots. It's bad enough that they segregate our military based on one religion, and are called "heathens" if they don't swallow. Doesn't this violate the part of the constitution that speaks of separation of

The shocking truth about the one percent has finally had time to sink in. The protests are being erased from our memories, but now we know for sure that there is a wealthy class. This class actually has so much money that they hold sway in what happens to the rest of us. Shocking. I'm not exactly sure how this concept has been missed on so many Americans. The worst part is how a high school graduate could do so without knowing that the one percent has been since human civilization began. Whether it be a tribal Witch Doctor, or the owner of an entire country, there is always a ruling elite. This has always run paralell to wealth. Why would it be different in America? Yes, you are subject to their collective agenda, and few of us will effect the world in that way. The freedom we are allowed lets us move about as we please. We are allowed to move up as far as we desire; relatively speaking. Despite the amounts of money they make, I enjoy my life as I choose. As far as us having say

Just a heads-up, I don't think that I am of the age to have a mid-life crisis. I might be close, but I'm pretty sure my life is far past the middle. Statistically, I have about 19 years left. I have observed many men going through this crisis. Some of them lose their shit and buy douche bag cars, rent hookers, leave their wives, and whatever other cliche' you can think up. Some men glide through this period like it's nothing. How might they go about this? I pulled a few tips out of nowhere but my head; as usual. What are the potential causes of a mid-life crisis?  Is there a cure? 1. Regret: Some men put their hopes and dreams away when they decide to start a family. Sometimes we make decisions when we are too young or emotionally immature to comprehend what it means to marry and have children. If we deprive ourselves of the things we love to do or want to accomplish, we could be building a time-bomb of regret when we see that we unnecessarily sacrificed who we are. Y

This morning I heard a smart man make a stupid "talking point". We have a great morning show in Mobile, and this guy and his "memos" are a tiny part of it. Sometimes he really nails it, and other days not so much. Today was about how our nation was founded on Judeo Christian principles, and that is why the ten commandments still hang in our Supreme Court. This is mostly true, though most of our founders were not religious. This voice on the radio then began to spout statistics about how many Americans attend church. The figure was around 30%. There has been a steady decline in church attendance, and he sited secularism and materialism as the culprits. This may be true to a degree, but there is more to it. There are two basic reasons for this decline; boredom and irrelevance. Boredom is born of habit. Any time we do something -other than biological functions and work- habitually, and the activity in itself is habitual, it becomes boring. If you buy your kid a Play

During a conversation about my book with a man both older and wiser than I, I was told something that sounded correct. It sounded correct for the notion that optimism and happiness are a given. He said, "People want a redemptive and encouraging story." I agreed in a diplomatic way and replied, " Yeah, everybody wants a happy ending to make them feel good." During this time, I was thinking about how much the opposite I am of wanting to write a story with the goal of making someone feel one type of feeling. I might kill the protagonist of the novel right at the end. How many emotions would that evoke? It cannot be any more or less emotional than a happy ending. What if every piece of art you looked at was painted in soft pastels? What if there is redemption after death? This is aside from the books I have read that have sad endings. Though it is unrealistic to think that all readers like one type of story, there is something to be said for happy endings. I don'

It seems like every time we decide to put our bigotry aside for a certain type of person, along comes another to hate. The worst part is that our governments' name and target these people for us. Here's a quick history of hateful racism and bigotry in America: Native Americans, Britons, Eastern Europeans, the French, African Americans, the Japanese, women, yankees in the South, the GLBT community as a whole, Islam and the undocumented. Despite our progress as a nation in it's move toward equal rights and general fairness in our society, there is always another person or group to rail against. I might be next for being a physical anomaly. You might be next simply for the neighborhood you live in, or those who "have spots"*. When will we run out of people to hate? Never. The new "bottom feeders" are the hackers. They are being picked off one-by-one. They are being handed multiple life sentences, when rapists spend as little as four months in prison. I ha

It is a beautiful Spring-like morning in Mobile. You might need to wear a jacket over your short dress, or a sweater over your button down shirt. Also, ladies, you might want to go easy on the costume jewelery that sits on your bare chest, for your deeply scooping neckline; plastic and metal can make you colder. Aside form staying warm, it is a great morning to wake up and run your ass off to get ready, get in a fight with your spouse, beat a couple kids for losing a shoe, then go to church. Don't worry though; no one will know by the time you get there. I know there are many churches of many flavors, but they all adhere to the same basic program. Whether it be explicitly printed in your bulletin, or more of an implied order of service, they are the same. Some of you will hear a "butterflies and carebears" type of message. Some of you will feel like the filthiest sinner ever, after the sermon you get lashed by. Some of you will be asleep as soon as the last organ note, o

It's no secret that the CIA, the FBI, and the rest of the government spies are making examples of those of us who dislike them. They are always a step behind, so when they get someone, they drop the "hammer of justice" on them. They do it under the guise of security. The actual reason lies in jealousy. Our government is obviously experiencing a brain drain, and they are beginning to resemble cornered opossums. They bare their teeth, but a broom stick or ski pole is all it takes to neutralize their toothy threats. How many of us can they prosecute before the back-log overwhelms them? How many more of us than there are them? It doesn't matter; most Americans are no more active than a slug. Even they leave something behind. Why is this country allowing a handful of assholes to hunt down citizens who are sharing information that we already have the right to see? It is because you, and you, and you are letting them. Not only that, you are funding them. Bitching and compla

Good morning, Pat. I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know what it's like to not be wrapped in the embrace of senility. More importantly, there comes a time in everyone's life to quit, or retire. I feel like your poor religious mind retired when I was eight. That was almost thirty years ago, and that was my earliest memory of you. I can't speak for the relevance of your show back then, as I was busy playing, but I don't even have to watch it now to know. The media gives us all a glimpse of your world when you are at the pinnacle of religious ignorance. Most of what you say is ridiculous. If Comedy Central ran out of material they could surely air your show. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that boat you rode to the new land on, the Mayflower, and their ideas are historical now. America accepts gay people, witches, demonic sweaters, Muslims, Hindus, and minorities. None of them are going to your hell. You might start to see this as your audience die