I know this was a long time ago and I apologize for bringing up a dead post. The running is going great, it's been a year and I run often though life has been getting a bit rough for me lately and I haven't been able to input as many calories as I'd be burning running...so I have taken a break. I definitely plan to get back into it along with a training regime I've created as soon as I get college going again.

I appreciate your interest! I finally got to the point where when I run I can feel the high and I get withdrawals from time to time when I think about running then think about the damage it would do to my body on this poor diet I've accumulated. I think I've finally gotten to a point where I can proudly call myself a runner.

Not only did this give me the motivation to write but also the motivation to stop half-completing my art pieces.

Likewise. Everyone, be safe.

No, it is not the way I want to live it is the way that many are currently living. It's terrible.

How would you, personally, go about making it easier for those who have succumbed to that way of living to understand how they are able to buy the things that they buy?

How would you make it easier for people to acknowledge the work that goes into making these commodities?

I'm sure many already know how their luxuries are being produced. Do you feel that those that are working for close to nothing will appreciate being thanked for enduring those inhumane working conditions? That is like praying for something to happen rather than taking action. I'd feel undermined if I were being thanked for being a slave rather than being fought for to be taken out of those conditions.

I don't think it's that people don't care. There are a lot of angles to consider.

When we hear about mass murders we have a little moment of "that is terrible, what is this world coming to" and move on. Why? They are just numbers. 30 people dead. Hundreds of workers working for $1 an hour to make shoes that can be made within seconds which are then sold for $200. A young, white male.

All of these statements are generalized. There is no connection that links us to them; it is similar to when someone you don't know has been talking on their phone in the DMV about their child for the longest hour of your life. We don't hear in the news about how Susie Jr.s death affects her family and friends and that it systematically ruined their Thanksgiving. Though, is it even reasonable to ask that the news do such? It can only cover so much and if you added personal, individualized cases to it there would possibly only be one story a day.

Now, even if we were to get that pseudo-connection needed to exert any signs of us caring in the slightest, I'm sure a majority of the people who really would do something if they could just don't know how to go about doing it. It is like we are living in a heavily guarded, transparent box. We aren't given the tools and guidance needed to help as efficiently as we are capable of. Don't get me wrong, the tools and guidance ARE there. We are just so distracted with our shiny toys and trying to fend for ourselves in a forever broken economy that we just aren't reasonably capable of gaining the willpower and getting into the mentality necessary to go out of our ways to pursue them.

Even if none of the above applied to said person willing to help, there is so much red tape to go through in order to even gain enough power to do so. That one person could fight through all of the troubles that stand in the way of aiding others but their effort can only do so much. It has to be a largely collaborative effort. Those hungry people in other countries (to be honest, I am not sure why we emphasize them so much seeing that our very own country has it's own starving inhabitants living in awful conditions) aren't hungry because there isn't enough food to distribute. There aren't enough people willing and/or able to be distributors.

Those that slave away and live in shacks so that we can live seemingly pompous lifestyles only know that way of life. I'm sure there are many who feel that there is no hope or that this is just how life is and are content with their position. They wouldn't know how to function in a free world. That doesn't make it any better but it makes it harder to reach out to those people because they aren't reaching out to us.

You can label us the bad guys but in reality we are all products of our environments. Collateral damage, if you will.

The hard truth isn't necessarily given harshly but given with no regards to someones feelings about the subject. It is something that is told like it is rather than being vague and indirect.

I usually associate it with someone who cares enough about your well being to tell you what you need to hear versus what you want to hear.

I open my eyes and see a crying Earth. Its inhabitants are selfish and unappreciative when she has given us all we have and has suffered for her kindness. The Earth is hurt. The Earth is fed up. She is being used but she has grown sick of it and is starting to retaliate. Soon, much sooner than we can hope to imagine, she will shake us off like the mere fleas we are to her and start anew without us. I do not want to be that burden, that flea. We preach ergonomics yet contradict our pseudo-will; no one stands for it. One; us as a unified whole. We are too deep in the abyss of worldly pleasures to comprehend the wrath that awaits us; too superficial to understand the proposed concept of our being here and of our eradication. So I close my eyes in attempts to drown out the screams of our destined fates. I open them and witness a world that I feel is sucking me into its self-destructive nature.

Would it be possible to make each parent comment as well as a set number or size of replies have their own individual scroll box? It would show the complete parent comment as well as a set number of replies afterwards (depending on length) and if you want to read more you can scroll down within that individual scroll box.

If what you are seeing interests you enough to keep you hooked in that reply chain you can press some sort of button or command to expand the entire box.

That is unfortunate. It seems to me that for every one dog that is owned and taken care for responsibly, a litter of them are mistreated. Since people aren't showing that they are capable, in majority, of treating dogs (or any animals) with respect, there should be requirements to own them. In correlation, making hefty consequences for abuse would deter some animal abusers. Just like with owning a car (it still doesn't seem to do much) you should have to get a license before owning an animal. Not everyone is fit to own one.

I guess the same could be said for a lot of things. Children. People should have to show proof that they will be able to take care of the child. There are a lot of instances of what /should/ be regulated as opposed to what is and what is infringing on our "rights". Honestly, sometimes I feel that people use the word more as a weapon and could care less about what it ultimately stands for.

Alright, I'm getting off the main topic now.

New York City is the city I was referring to, my apologies, I should have specified.

Here in the city, people generally tend to get their dogs trained properly. I used to be weary about them (okay, I still am) but I have warmed up to passing them now-a-days. As long as you don't give the dogs eye contact they tend to go about their business. There are even people who have their beasts trained so well that they can walk them without a leash with tons of people walking about and go into a store without having to worry about the dog bothering others or running off.

What made me feel a little more at ease about the whole dog situation is this one guy who had a pitbull that I was sure was going to go after a cat that a store owner owned completely, entirely disregarded the cat. For a few seconds I felt I was seeing things. It nonchalantly walked by, leash-less and sat at the side of the front door waiting for the owner to return.

I lived in the suburbs in Texas, though, and it is a completely different aspect. I know exactly where you are coming from with this view. I would change to the opposite side of the street (and that is a good four lanes) to avoid peoples' crazed dogs. They would bark before you even realized a dog was trotting on your path.

Ending the domestication is a vague concept, though.

How would one go about this? Would we have to 'put down' millions of house-trained dogs (and I use this term very loosely) individually?

Where would the money to do something on such a vast scale come from (taxpayers/owners)? People would definitely feel as if their freedoms are being threatened, seeing that any regulation is usually heavily dreaded. "Why do I have to pay for something that I do not own?" "Why do I have to pay for something I do not want?"

Would it be systematic genocide of an entire race of animal? Wild dogs are rare enough as it is (at least, to my understanding). If we were to not kill the house-trained animals and let them roam free in the wild, it raises the possibility of them roaming free and unrestricted. Possibly hostile due to them being abandoned, hungry and left to die. The dogs would get diseases and spread disease. There would be millions of unaccounted dead carcasses peppered across the country (world).

If you think flies are annoying now, imagine enough flies to feast upon these dogs that have had days and weeks to breed and thrive from the dead dogs. Now, imagine these same flies that have bred and gained in mass numbers with little to nothing left to feast on, having to scavenge for food once again but now with increased numbers and less food sources.

It'd be a complete disaster.

I guess you could, over the years, eradicate all of the dogs. Though, it would be too much trouble. You would have to create a fair system to choose which dogs are to be killed or there will be people calling racism and sexism. There will be those who cause trouble because their next-door neighbor can own a cat; a bird.

I'm sure there are many more angles that I haven't addressed but the fact that there are so many show that this is highly improbable.

Your opinion is understood and shared. Though, it is an unrealistic goal to accomplish within our lifetimes so we are better off learning to cope with it.

No problem, and thank you for reading it. Best of wishes with your music!

I wouldn't necessarily say I came from reddit, more like passed through it on my journey to finding a place worthy of spending my time.

After a few days on reddit, I quickly took note that it was not a place I would want to stick with in the long run but I was unaware of any sites with a similar layout though where I could weed out a lot of the irrelevant, inane discussions and general clutter.

It is hard to filter a lot of the internet out so you end up becoming numb to the bogus antics or slowly succumbing to the nonsense and ultimately transforming into one of 'them', even if it is just a charade you put on to cope with it all. Internally, I yearned for a place like this and am hoping it does not disappoint.