Bah, starting new things is always a drag. On one side, I want to keep this journal so that I can have some way to get my thoughts out, but on the other hand I actually have to USE it. Not that I'm lazy; far from it. I'm just very busy. A ton of my work involves me being on the computer and typing. So why, when I get free time, do I want to be on the computer and typing? It's not a big deal. Obviously if it really bugged me I could easily take out a spiral notebook and jot my thoughts down there. I think I'll be more prone to write in here once people actually start reading and leaving feedback. Some sort of encouragement will do the trick. But, enough about that, on to the topic of the day.

Let's Talk Politics

First, let me be straight up with you all, I am a Republican. It's probably a mistake saying that seeing as how Republicans are placed in the same category as Hitler these days (seriously), but if I expect you all to be open and upfront with me, I need to be the same with you. I am not ashamed of my Republican views; in fact, I'm very proud of them. Now, I don't blindly agree with everything the party leaders say. I'm not some right-wing yoohoo. Why am I not a Democrat, you wonder? I'll tell you. When I meet a Democrat... and I mean a true Democrat, not someone who simply votes Democrat because that's what everyone else seems to be doing, I notice a few things during our conversation.  One, they are very angry people. They hate everyone who doesn't agree with their view point. They think the entire universe is being destroyed by humans (again, I'm serious. I'll update with a link once I find the quote). Why on earth would a person WANT to be so mad all the time? We have such short lives as it is. Why waste it hating everyone and everything? Let me give you an example of a conversation I had with one of my liberal colleagues. We were chatting about this and that one day. He brought up the presidential candidates; wanted to discuss their strengths and weaknesses. When we began discussing Hilary, the second I said something bad about her (I pointed out how she's basically the god father (or mother, I suppose) of politics and will do whatever it takes (WHATEVER it takes) to win), he cursed me and hung up on me. You see, when I have political conversations with my Republican friends and we have a disagreement, we discuss it and debate it as adults. If we can't find a point of agreement, we simple move on to a new conversation or bid out farewells and agree to meet at a better time. In other words, we handle our disagreements as adults; not as whiny little children.

My second observation when speaking to a democrat is that they don't seem to really know why they are a Democrat... they're just are. It blows me away to talk politics with a Democrat. They do just fine on a basic level, but when the conversation gets deep, they either begin fumbling their words or they begin regurgitating whatever they heard Democrats say on tv. I became a Republican, not because I chose to be one, but because that's where my core value lye. Most of my life I considered myself a moderate. I was ok with some Democratic stances and I was ok with some Republican stances (half-and-half). When I started college, I was exposed to more politics than I had ever been around before and began noticing that I agreed with more Republican stances than Democrat stances. I'm against abortion, for the death penalty, for immigration control, against socialized medicine, etc etc... The point being, I became a Republican because my views were already the views of a Republican before I ever even WAS a Republican. My Democratic friends seem to blindly follow the views of their party without doing any research of their own. Not to mention when they became Democrats, their views on things suddenly changed. That's not how things are supposed to work. You're supposed to join a group because you agree with their views. You don't join a group and then change your views to fit the group's agenda... that's ludicrous.

I would like to point out that I am VERY open to discussion and debate with Democrats. I realize that not ALL Democrats fall into the two categories listed above and in the other categories I plan on listing in my next entry. I know I am a very open minded person, there is no debating that. The whole point of this entry and of the one next time is to explain why I'm a Republican ... simple as that. If you're a Democrat and have read this, please prove my above points wrong. Have adult discussions with me; show me that I'm mistaken.

I have other points I want to make, but as I said before, I'm a very busy person so I can't just sit down and write pages every time I want to make a new journal. I'll continue from where I left off in my next entry. Until then, take care and God bless!

Apologies?
So, it's been a few days *cough* since my last entry here. I would apologize for that, but most likely non of my old readers are around anymore, so I have no one to apologize to. I suppose from this point forward, this will be a whole new blog, so I'll reintroduce myself so that I can save you time back reading (if anyone is drawn to do so).

About Me
My name is Michael DuPlantis.  The profile picture up right now (the one with the black background and metallic bubbles all over) was taken at least 2 years ago (3 years ago even) so it's a bit outdated... but, that's basically me. I am 23 years old and still in school; plan to finish my bachelor's degree in February. Currently, I'm a licensed real estate agent. I just joined up with a company (Keller Williams) in October, so I'm still quite the novice in my Realtor skills. Being a Realtor is not a career goal of mine, just an interest I have. It's more so a learning experience than anything. You see, my parents have been real estate investors for as long as I can remember. Because of this, I have a natural interest in real estate. Most jobs for people my age offer terrible wages and even worse hours, so being an independent contractor is really a perk for me. I make my own hours, work off of commission (so I determine how much I make), and best of all, I get to pursue a passion of mine. My ultimate goal is to become a pediatrician, but I'm taking my time on that. It has taken me 5, almost 6 years to graduate from college. After I graduate, I plan to take a year or two working strictly in real estate then, if all goes well, I will buckle down and take on medical school. Of course, such a decision is very difficult to make (the decision of entering medical school, that is), so I will use my time after I graduate from college to make sure that is how I truly want to spend the rest of my life.
Relationships . . . I fail at them. For some odd reason, I repulse girls that I'm with. It's really quite tragic. I'll explain myself (pardon if it doesn't sound very modest. I AM modest, but at the same time, I know how things are, so my explanations may seem a bit big headed. I'm sorry.). I'm the guy that all the girls want to be with. I have stalkers; have had stalkers my entire life. I'm seen as handsome, charming, witty, intelligent, and all around, the perfect guy (and have been called all of those things many times in my life). Unfortunately, I'm dreadfully shy, so I cannot ever bring myself to talk to a girl whom I am interested in. I have only asked out one girl in my entire life. Odd, I know. If, by some freak of nature (luckily freaks of natures are a bit common in my life) a girl develops the nerve to ask me out, I accept, and we are happy together, I will undoubtedly find some way to screw things up. I think the best way to describe myself is a "One Minute Man": Keep me around for a minute, no more... 'else you will suffer. I am exaggerating a bit here, but honestly, when it comes to the dating scene, I am one of the most hopeless men you will probably ever meet. I've only been in two serious relationships. One lasted 7 months, the other 2 1/2 years. I broke up with the first girl. She had too much emotional baggage for my liking; not to mention she planned to move out of state as soon as possible.... with or without me. The second girl left me. Claimed she fell out of love with me. Guess I get boring after a while. That's my luck with relationships in a nut shell. Now, enough of this boring nonsense.

What You Should Expect from This Blog

Hopefully, this blog will keep my personal life to a minimum. I know how boring it is to read about other people's lives, so I'll do my best to spare you. I plan to use this blog to hold intelligent discussion. On, what, you ask? Why, anything and everything that peaks my interest. Science, politics, religion, culture, art, history, etc... I'll discuss anything and everything that is taboo. Regardless of my personal opinion on a subject, I feel it is important to understand both sides of the story ([/end cliche]). If we seclude ourselves in our "safe zone" of ideas, then we become close minded and cease to grow. My objective is to prevent that from happening by holding discussion on things that are out of the norm.

I am not sure how often I update this blog. If I am the only one reading it, I may only update it once or twice a month. But, if I somehow manage to develop a following (regular readers), I will be feel driven (and will be obligated) to update many times a week, so as to keep your interest and spark new and interesting debate.


Conclusions are Sweet

Please feel free to say anything and everything here on this blog. If you don't like my writing style, say it. If you don't like my blog layout, say it. If you disagree with what I say and want to ban me to the deepest pits of the Earth, say it. Self expression is invaluable. I may not agree with what you are commenting on, but that doesn't matter. Never hold back. The day that you stop standing up for what you believe in is the day that you lose your freedom.

To wrap things up, I'd like to leave you with a very simple question. I'm sure you've heard it many times before; that's because it's a GOOD question. Please think about it, dwell on it, write a journal about it, whatever ... just acknowledge that it is a question that you need to answer. The question is:
"Are you happy?"

Simple and common, yes. Easy to answer, not at all. If you're happy, explain WHY you are happy. What is it that brings joy in your life. If you're not happy, explain why. What are the negatives in your life? How can you rid yourself of those negatives? I believe an unhappy life is not one worth living. No, I'm not encouraging suicide (a disgusting act), I'm saying.... why waste your life being unhappy?  You only have so long to live. Your choices are: (A) Be happy or (B) Be sad. Very simple choices to make. I'm sure many of you are grimacing right now and saying how ignorant I am of the true mechanics of life. If you are one of those people, please bare with me. People are put in negative situations either because of their own action or because of someone else's actions. You can decide if you want to smoke that marijuana. Filing for a divorce is a way out of an abusive marriage. You can either beg on the street corner and live on the streets or get a job at a fast food restaurant and work your way back up the ladder. These are all choices people make all the time. Why do people sometimes choose to go with the negatives rather than the positives? Fear of change, peer pressure, ignorance, etc... My point being, don't say you can't fix your problems, you can. I encourage you to write a journal addressing the question "Are you happy?". Just let the words flow out. You may discover things you never knew about yourself.

On that note, I bid you a good day!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I guess xanga just doesn't do it for me anymore *shrug*. I promise I'm not going anywhere though . . . Allie keeps me on here.

Ooooook, what's been going on in my life. Let's see... on Christmas we had a bunch of friends over which is always wonderful I got to catch up with some old friends so that was really nice. On New Years Eve I just went to a movie (Rumor Has It ... great movie) and had dinner with my folks. I've never been real big into going out on New Years. I guess it's because I don't really like crowds or drinking heh. Other than that I have just been working and hanging out with friends.

Yesterday was pretty cool. I went dirtbiking with Jack down at a track (the kind with tons of hills and turns and such). It was really fun, but hard. I haven't ridden a dirtbike since I was in 7th grade (my old one got destroyed in a flood) so needless to say I was a bit rusty. Plus, the bike he had was a 450 which is mega powerful . . . way above our level . . . but whatever, we're dumb and rode it anywho lol. I wasn't too shabby. I was able to hit some pretty large jumps. I love that Now for the funny part... I fell twice. Well, I guess that doesn't sound too funny to ya'll, but I find it hilarious. On my first run, within about a minute, I was on the ground lol. I went to take a turn but I went into it wrong so I tried to hit the break but hit the clutch instead so I just toppled over and the bike landed on me. It cut up my leg and hands but I was fine, just a little shaken up cause it sucked heh. Thennn, the second time I fell sucked a lot more than that. I was hitting some large hills and when I landed from one of the jumps my hand pulled down on the throttle causing the dirtbike to accelerate at a high rate. I hit the second hill while I was going out of control but managed to land that too somehow. Buttt, when I went to gain control again the bike hit the tip of a hill and fell sideways and it slid for a few feet with me under it again heh. That kinda messed up the bottom of my left arm but that's it. The falls didn't hurt after about a minute, it just really shakes you up. Anywho, all the other times around the track I did just fine. Oh, Jack fell too lol. His was a lot worse though. He was hitting a bunch of small, continuous hills (don't know what they're called) at about 20 miles an hour (which is fast for those little things) and flipped over the bike. He actually had to walk the bike back to where I was watching because the left side of his body was numb. I didn't get to see the crash, but sounds like it was pretty bad. Of course, Jack tends to overreact so who knows. Aside from the crashing, we had a blast Sadly though, I didn't get to talk to Allie last night She had some friends over. I'm happy that she finally got to spend some time with them though. She's been trying all break.

Alright, I'm off to do whatever. I'll try to update more often even if it's not so exciting heh. See ya!