An interesting debate has been uploaded to Google Video, which was posted on Digg a while back, between Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton. Hitchens is the author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and Sharpton is an American Baptist minister.

When I started to watch this, I was afraid it would just turn into an arrogant shouting match, but both conducted themselves very well. They, for the most part, answered questions with well thought-out answers and took criticism and playful ribbing without becoming defensive.

The debate goes in circles a little at times with Sharpton wanting to focus the discussion on God rather than religion and Hitchens not complying. I haven’t read Hitchens’ book yet, so I can’t vouch for how valid this is, but according to Sharpton he does write about God specifically and wasn’t bringing those points up during the debate. Otherwise, I think it went fairly smoothly.

I’m an atheist, but I’m not very militant about it. I’m not a Hitler Atheist, as I heard someone refer to their coworker as once - an insult that doesn’t make sense on multiple levels. My family is technically Protestant. I say technically because we never attended church, and I believe both of my parents think of themselves as agnostic now.

Religion in my family was always a private topic. We didn’t shy away from it, as I was one of those kids that had to ask a million questions about everything around him, but what you believe and how you decide to follow those beliefs was always something personal. I was never pressured in any which way, and my parents were great at discussing religion objectively.

I definitely agree with Hitchens that religion shouldn’t be preached in schools or forced upon people. I do believe, however, that it would be great if school curriculum included a mandatory course on religion in one of the lower grades. A course that would introduce students to the major religions followed throughout the world and their teachings. So many people’s views seem spoiled by propaganda and biased news reports. Something like this, early on in kids’ lives, could help stop some of the hate brought on by ignorance. Unfortunately, a course like that could so easily be abused by an instructor with a bias.

Anyway, it’s an interested debate. If more people could discuss religion as civilly and intelligently as these two, we’d probably be better off.

I’ve embedded the video for your viewing pleasure.

The Books, Words, and Writing weblog linked to a list of the top 50 books that got people hooked on reading, from a survey of over 100,000 people. It’s an interesting mix of books. I’m surprised to see The Bible on the list. It doesn’t really seem like the type of book that would introduce children to the world of literature.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe jumped out at me. I remember borrowing The Chronicles of Narnia box set from my sister in grade five or six and loving the series. In fact, I still have that box set sitting on my shelf right now. I’ve always had a natural talent for pilfering books.

Before that, I remember sitting in the library in grade four with my friend Mike, devouring every Hardy Boys book they had on the shelf. We were determined to get through the series, even if every book was essentially the same. At that time I was also reading through the Fear Street series by R.L. Stine, which surprisingly aren’t on the list.

In early elementary school I was reading a mix of children’s books, but I can’t think of any specific titles right now. I remember enjoying the Mr. Men books in the early years. Oh how I loved Mr. Mischief.

But to choose the book, that single book that got me hooked on reading, I have to go back even further than that. Back to those nights before kindergarten, before I even knew how to read my own name, when I’d curl up in bed and listen to my dad read The Hobbit to me. My imagination blossomed within those pages. I could nearly feel the ground under my feet as I traveled beside Bilbo, Gandalf, and Thorin. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad mimicking Gollum’s voice as he read.

I firmly believe my lifelong reading and writing habits were formed and developed those nights. My dad didn’t inspire me to go out and buy more books or to pick up a pen and start inventing tales; I was far too young for that. He did, however, shape the way I relate to stories, and that’s a gift for which I’m most thankful.

I find I’m incredibly susceptible to mental blocks. This is something I’ve only become aware of recently, but I think it’s a major cause of my procrastination and literary frustrations.

Sometimes I’ll get an idea in my head, and I just won’t be able to let go of it. It’s often just a vague image, a fleeting memory, a mildly humourous thought, but I have a hard time stepping over it. It will completely block my path until I do something with it, which can often take some time. Some ideas need to grow flesh and skin in my mind, else I risk the chance of uploading a bloody mess of a weblog entry. The problem is while I’m waiting for this idea to grow into something that could or could not be useful, I tend to not do much else. I wait for one idea to succeed or fail before moving on to another.

This isn’t a matter of not being able to multi-task. If I wasn’t able to do that, I would have been fired from my job long ago. I just occasionally get…stuck, I suppose. There’s really no other way to describe it. I think there’s probably two reasons this happens to me.

Firstly, I put too much weight in ideas. Once I get an idea that I think will work for a weblog entry or story, I’m absolutely determined to make it work. I’m afraid to let it slip away and be lost, as if I only have a finite number of ideas at my disposal. I would actually hold onto ideas that I thought were really good, in hopes of developing my skills enough to someday do them justice. I’ve recently discovered that ideas are virtually worthless when it comes to writing. There are millions of ideas out there, and it’s best to just use them up as they come along and make room for the better ideas. Because there will always be better ideas.

Secondly, I’m fairly sure I have a minor case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Very minor, but still there. I displayed symptoms while growing up, but for some reason it just never registered with me. I remember repeatedly having to check the lock on the door when I’d entered the bathroom as a kid. I’d lock the door, look into the mirror, go back and check that the lock had actually locked, look back into the mirror, go back and check the lock, and so on. I’d always do this at least three times, but when I was tired or stressed it would occasionally happen upwards of fifteen times. I had a few other physical symptoms, such as developing a couple of small twitches for a short time when I was a teenager, but I think most of the symptoms were mental. I would just focus on silly, irrelevant things for ridiculous amounts of time.

It wasn’t until I was in university that it suddenly donned on me that this was happening. I remember I was watching the episode of Scrubs where Michael Fox was guest starring as a doctor with OCD. There was a scene where he was washing his hands for hours and couldn’t bring himself to stop. I was thinking to myself that I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to get stuck in a loop like that. I then thought wait a second, I do know what that feels like. I don’t know why it took me so long to think twice about my weird behavior, but once I did it was a startling revelation. All of these examples from my life came flooding into my head. Shortly after that, I shared my amazing discovery with my friend Tanya, to which she responded “well, yeah. Of course you are.”

Interestingly, once I realized that I had a tendency to be obsessive and compulsive, I was really able to pull things together. It was a cause of a lot of social anxiety and stress in my life. When I obsessed about something, I would procrastinate everything else. For example, if I had an event in the evening to go to, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done during the day. My mind would keep focusing back to that event. Once I was aware of what I was doing, I was able to break whatever mental or physical loops I found myself in. I could tell myself to stop checking that lock and brush my teeth or to stop focusing on my final exam tomorrow and finish writing this essay. I was getting a lot more done, and my stress levels dropped dramatically.

Obviously someone with a real case of OCD doesn’t have the option of just stopping themselves. It’s not possible for them to control the disorder. Without medication, many wouldn’t be able to live regular lives. This is how I know I don’t have the disorder. I don’t know what the medical term would be for me. Most likely a spaz.

Anyway, what I have long-windedly been trying to get to is that I was obsessing about writing the same way I obsess about events in my life. I find a good idea, and I focus on it until I write it or until it dies. Once I realized I was doing that, I started to force myself to start another post or story and let the idea grow in the background. Sometimes it will turn into something I want to pursue and sometimes I drop it, but I’m always working on something else on the side.

I think other writers, even those not nearly as spastic as I am, let themselves fall into this trap. Maybe not with minor weblog posts, but when focusing on larger pieces of work, such as a manuscript they’re trying to publish. I’ve chatted with someone who had been trying to get their work published for six months without any bites. He was becoming frustrated and had started to doubt himself as a writer. During those six months of trying to get published, he hadn’t written a single word of new material. He was stuck in a mental loop when he should have been branching out and testing other ideas during that time.

I think maybe everyone is a little obsessive at times, to varying degrees. Just remember to take a step back and see if you’re sticking to the floor from time to time.

Not only was yesterday the birthday of Emperor Palpatine, the Teletubbies’ Scariest Enemy, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Joe Jackson, the Host of the Bug Eaters, Maggie from Extras, Death Cab for Cutie’s and The Postal Service’s mastermind, and that little breakdancing girl from Missy Elliot’s videos, but it was also the anniversary of the birth of little old me.

This is the age where all of my objectives came to a point. I’m a very goal-oriented person, but I seem to have reached the point in my life where I’ve basically accomplished the major goals I had set for myself. Three of the big milestones to hit before reaching twenty-five were:

1. Start traveling, and have lived somewhere abroad for even a short time.
2. Finish my degree and find an enjoyable job that allows me to continue learning .
3. Move into a single apartment, buy furniture, and settle down somewhere for longer than six months.

These are the same, unchanged, three goals I’ve had since elementary school. It’s great to have accomplished them, but I feel like I’ve just been drifting through life this last year. I don’t have any real goals left. I still want to learn as much as I can, advance in my career, travel the world as much as possible, take writing more seriously, meet that special someone, and become healthier, but none of these are really tangible.

I’m very happy with where I am right now, but I think I should sit down and think about where I’m heading and how to get there, set some new goals to work towards. As much as I enjoy flying through the air, it’s nice to have a target to aim at.

But don’t get me wrong, this birthday wasn’t all about contemplating goals and reevaluation life. I doubled my cash at the blackjack table too!

I know a few people who are considering dropping their smoking habit soon. I smoked for about seven years through my high school and undergraduate university years and then quit cold turkey. While lately I can still be seen stealing a drag after partaking in a night of intoxicated leisure, I did manage to go over three years without taking a single puff. I was thinking of advice I could give these would-be free breathers and came up with a few categorized points. Now you probably wouldn’t hear Dr. Phil give these tips out, but I think they’re solid nonetheless.

Quit Smoking: The Seven Deadly Sins Method

Lust

While quite possibly the most enjoyable of the group, this sin unfortunately doesn’t have much to do with our quitting smoking guide, but I can offer one tip: only have sex with those whose personality you strongly dislike or whose appearance you find mildly disgusting. This will keep you from staying around afterwards for that glorious post-romp cigarette.

Gluttony

Stuff that pretty little face of yours. Eat until you couldn’t possibly take another bite, and then force yourself to take that bite. Smother the clawing and taunting of your previous addiction with jelly-filled doughnuts. Do not, however, get drunk if you usually smoke while drinking. Always move to a new poison to keep things interesting. If you normally drink, have yourself a joint. Normally eat mushrooms? Try a hit of acid instead. Smoking crack more your thing? Move on to crystal meth! This will not only keep you distracted, but since it’s a new sensation, you won’t immediate reach for your cigarette pack. If you’re already a crystal meth addict, now is probably not the best time to stop smoking.

Greed

You don’t have to share nothin’ with no one. End of tip.

Sloth

Quitting smoking is a full time job. You cannot be expected to function as a regular human being during this time, so don’t even try. Spend entire weekends playing video games and watching M.A.S.H. reruns. Show up to work late and do as little as possible while there. Make sure you burden those around you as much as you can. Pain is meant to be shared.

Wrath

This is your time to rage, so let it all out. Don’t like how that McDonald’s employee made your burger? Let them have it! Did someone cut you off with their gigantic SUV? Get out of your car at the next red light and don’t get back in until you hurt them. When you’re at your absolute breaking point, curl up in the fetal position and have a good cry. When you can cry no more, slowly being rebuilding that rage. I like to refer to this as the cycle of hatred.

Envy

Spend every moment of every day imagining you’re someone else. Stare dreamily at every person you see with bright white teeth. Linger around those whose smell is that of sweet perfume or spicy cologne. Openly drool over anyone you see dining or drinking. Vicariously taste the strong, full flavours they’re experiencing. Don’t hold back the tears when watching someone spend the money they didn’t give to cigarette companies. Want everything. Envy everyone.

Pride

Look down on those foolish suckers who are still smoking. You managed to drop a habit. Your superior intelligence and grasp of future consequences together have made your will power so mighty that you can accomplish any task and withstand any force. Look at all of these pathetic, weak smokers around you, chained to their cigarette packs like dogs to their owners. They make you sick - not because of their smell, as ghastly as it is, but because they’re a blemish on humanity, a pock on an otherwise perfect face of society. It is up to you and your comrades to lead these misguided souls down the path of health. Begin preaching immediately.

I hope this advice works for you. Bask in the healing power of the seven glorious sins, and nothing will stand in your way.

I read this article on Lifehack.org this morning, and this may be the early morning caffeine rush speaking, but I found it to be fairly insightful. It’s written by Adrian Savage, a retired business executive, and it lists fifteen life lessons he wishes he’d known in his youth. It’s all common sense really, and it borderlines on ’self-help’, but I enjoyed it.

Here are my favourite points:

• Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever. One of the greatest advantages anyone can have is the willingness to make a fool of themselves publicly and often. There’s no better way to learn and develop. Heck, it’s fun too.
• The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip. The worst way to spend your time is spreading more. People who spread gossip are the plague-carriers of our day. Cockroaches are clean, kindly creatures in comparison.
• You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.
• The loudest noise in the world is the sound of people whining. Don’t add to it.

The point that really rung true with me is the first one I listed above. I spent most of my ‘transition to adulthood’ waiting. I spent my time in elementary school waiting for high school, my high school years waiting for university, and my university years waiting for working life. I held back on relationships, hobbies, and goals, thinking I’d be better equipped to enjoy them at the next stage in life. I think if there’s one thing I wish I’d known when I was younger, it would be to enjoy your life as it is instead of what it will be.

I look back at how together I thought I was when I was a teenager, and how not-at-all together I turned out to be, and I can’t help but wonder what I’ll think of my current self in ten years time. Maybe the best way to judge how you’re advancing in life is by how big of an idiot you think you were five years ago?

Last weekend I returned to Kamloops to witness a public incarceration of two souls, more commonly referred to as a wedding.

The bride, Tanya, is a very good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for most of our lives, and I think of her family as an extension of my own. We’ve been friends since we were only a few feet tall. Well, I was a few feet tall, she grew to her full height at the ripe age of four.

I believe we met in kindergarten, which is a very long time to know someone. My first impression of her was that she was a mean, violent girl with an unfortunate haircut. She may deny her violent tendencies now, but I vividly remember her chasing me down the street while her gang tied my friend to a pole with his fanny pack. It was around this time that I decided it was probably better to have her as an ally than an enemy, and I’ve been lucky enough to call her a close friend ever since.

I’m still really getting to know her new husband, Sean. I wasn’t his biggest fan at first. She did a terrible job of explaining who he was and how they met, so I don’t feel like I should really be to blame for my initial impression. She knows how quickly I judge puny mortals. That said, the more time I spend around him, the more I see he’s a cool guy. Even though I don’t know him as well as Tanya, I know he makes her very happy, and that’s enough for me.

The wedding was held in their back yard. In the middle of summer. In Kamloops, a town with a semi-desert climate. In 37 degree weather. With no shade. Yes, she’s still a mean, cruel girl. At least her hair is nice now.

They’re enjoying themselves in Hawaii at the moment. I want to wish them all the best in their lives together. Congratulations you two. Hope you’re having a great time.

This hasn’t been my luckiest week.

I had to return to Kamloops to attend a close friend’s wedding last weekend (more on that later), and I needed to buy a couple of new all season tires to get me there in one piece. After having the tires installed and balanced, I learned that my entire braking system was trashed. Pads, rotors, capilars, and other stuff I don’t know anything about - everything needed to be replaced. I ended up spending 60% of my car’s worth on repairs.

Today I come home, and I have gutter water draining from a ceiling light fixture onto my new bed.

Some of my friends believe I spent a large part of my youth punching babies in the face, because that’s the only way to explain my horrendous karma. I’d just like to say for the record, and hopefully whatever karma-controlling being or energy that is out there is listening, those babies totally deserved it.