Don't travel next to me!

If you think you are unlucky when you travel, that is because you have not met me. I am one of the unluckiest people on earth when it comes to traveling. As much as I plan and try to look ahead there is always something that goes wrong. In a way, it is almost like I inherited this bad luck from my dad. This is why every time we travel, there is always a Guti-aventura. (If you don't speak Spanish you won't get it). I'd like to share with you my epic return from New York back to Mexico City because it is worth putting on paper. It will make people pity me, it will make others laugh, but most importantly, it will let me vent a little. So here goes.

After having some trouble with some paperwork in the US, I had to come back home without Naomi. This is awful for several reasons. I had to leave my car in a garage in the Bronx. Our stuff is stowed away in a storage unit by Jamaica Bay, and worst of all, Naomi is homeless in New York. About three days ago, I bought I one way ticket to Mexico City, stopping in Houston through Continental Airlines. It departed from La Guardia at 10:45 am. I have been living in a hostal for the past few days, and Naomi has been staying with a friend of hers in the Bronx. It has been uncomfortable to say the least. Because it was our last night together for about a month, and because I wanted to make sure I got to the airport on time, I decided to book ourselves a hotel room in Queens Boulevard. I don't know if you know New York, but suffice it to say that I paid 112 dollars for a room that would have been less than forty anywhere else in the country. The hotel was ok though. It was sufficiently clean and that is good enough at this point. Naomi slept, but I kept waking up. I have a really hard time going to sleep when I have a flight or something important the next day. The anxiety of oversleeping is so much that I can usually just sleep for two, maybe three hours. I woke up at seven, got up and took a shower. I finished packing and put the luggage in the car. We drove to La Guardia. Checked in within ten minutes of arrival and left for the Bronx. I don't like to brag, but I am a very good navigator. Only a couple of months and I know the city like a local. I had to leave my car in a filthy garage in the Bronx that charges--get this--$160 dollars a month! To keep my car! Isn't that amazing? Naomi went her way in the Bronx, and so did I. I took the subway from 149st into 125th in Harlem and then the M60 to La Guardia. (See? I even talk like a no good yank). I got to La Guardia and that is where the pain started. First off, they changed the gate. No biggie, really, but I kinda had to walk a little. Then the plane was delayed. Not too much though. The thing is that Air Force One was landing in La Guardia and Obama travels with two F-15's.

[By the way, Air Force One is any aircraft carrying the president. It can be a Boeing 777 or a Cezna. As long as the president of the US is in it, it is called Air Force One. Now I bet you didn't know that.]

We had to wait on the runway while Mr Obama landed at La Guardia. I think he was back for the whole UN thing, even though it is Saturday and the whole thing doesn't make sense. Well, that is what the captain said anyway. After take off, we had a VERY bumpy ride into Houston. The weather between Washington and Houston was just terrible. Houston was ok. The airport is not bad. It is not great, but it is not bad either. I had chinese food--which is completely irrelevant to the story, but what the heck.

After patiently waiting for almost three hours, the man at the gate asked all the passengers to verify passport before they started boarding. I really don't want to get into it, but let's just say that Homeland Security didn't like my being there and took me apart for questioning. They were suspicious because I had come into the US with a vehicle, and somehow, I was returning home without it.

The flight towards Mexico was ok. The flight was not bad, but the woman sitting next to me had BO. I left the aircraft and went to baggage claim to get my bags. As I was going through customs, the lady had me run the bags through X-rays. Because we have a lot of stuff to bring to Mexico, I had decided to load my luggage with Naomi's clothes. With me, I had 6 or 7 handbags. Oh boy! So here I was trying to explain to the lady that the handbags belong to my fiancee and that they are used. They did a thorough search before they let me go.

So here I am, sitting at home. I can't wait to go to bed. My eyes are shutting and I need to sleep. Next time you are on vacation; stay away from me.

New York's Newest Urban Fashion Trends

Maybe I am completely out of touch with today's urban fashion. Perhaps I am just "too white". But I can't help turning up my nose at the fashion statements that some people do in this agitated New York City. Fortunately for all of us, I have only seen it here, and it is so ridiculous that we might never see it spread anywhere in the country or the world. On the other hand, New York is famous for spreading its ways, whether we like it or not. Example, we all know that the whole "t-shirt" on top of long sleeved shirt became famous thanks to New York and its people. Lucky for me, I never caved to this horrible nightmare. Some close friends, on the other hand, still think it is fashionable. The newest trends, especially within the black people and the hispanics in the outer boroughs of New York, is to:

1 Leaving the information sticker on your baseball hat.

Mostly on New York Yankees baseball hats. This is mostly a latino-slash-black thing, but I've even seen Asians doing it, which makes the nightmare even more profoundly horrifying. Not because I don't like Asians, but because Asians look awful when they try to imitate blacks or hispanics. They probably look even worse than caucasians. So the new thing is to buy a baseball hat, to leave the visor as flat as possible, and to leave to information sticker in plain view. I don't know why this is supposedly cool. Maybe they want people to know that they can afford a new hat? Maybe they want to show what their head size is? It is beyond me. I have even seen some cases where the sticker was obviously peeled off, and then reattached. The poor little thing barely hanging with the second hand glue that is used anyway.

2 Wearing low, very low pants.

Yes, we know you are proud of your boxer shorts. We all know that if you do this, you probably don't have a girlfriend, and the only one that sees your dirty undies is your momma when she does your laundry. But lets face it, this is not only horrible, it is also extremely inconvenient. I've had the misfortune of buying pants that are two big for my waist. It is extremely uncomfortable to walk, and have the feeling that your pants are falling off of you. To some people, this is exactly what they want. Some are a little more conservative, they only allow about 60% of their undies to show. Others, are a little more outgoing and show all their underwear and even some leg. In school, bullies used to pull your pants down to torment you. Now, people do it to themselves. But let alone the fact that you look like a total dork in need of professional mental help, isn't it completely complicated to walk like that. Not only do you walk like a retarded penguin, but if you hit a rock or someone shoves you, there is a high chance that you will end up on the floor, face down, and (really now) looking like an idiot.

These two new trends really bug me. I think people look completely stupid, and I think I have the right to NOT see some guy's undergarments. Am I right? I just hope for the sake of everyone who doesnot live in New York, that these memes don't spread. And they were afraid of swine flu?

We only use 10% of our Brains

We've all heard this ridiculous statement. Sometimes it is 30% sometimes it is 15%--the number varies. The premise, however, is the same. We only use a very small capacity of our brain. This statement has been circulating for a while now. Every time it has something different to offer. Sometimes they say that Einstein only used about 50% of the capacity of his brain, so just imagine how much you use! It seems obvious that this will surprise a lot of people and gasp in awe of the amazing potential of the human brain. --If we only used our brains to their full capacities...

People that repeat this statement are obviously not cognizant of the way the human brain works. But if they were able to question twice what they hear on the internet, they'd be able to figure out that it is incorrect.

The first question that any skeptic should ask his or herself is:

-- How do they know what 100% capacity really is?

In order to say that you only use 30% or 15% or whatever percentage of your brain, you first need to know the full capacity of the brain. If Einstein, who is one of the smartest people we've ever had, is not even close, how do we know what 100% is? What method was used to reach this number, and also, how are you measuring these cognition skills? IQ numbers seem to be the obvious answer, but it is not the case. The fact of the matter is that IQ tests are also capped, and there is a maximum score you can get. Furthermore, plenty of people have scored the highest score possible on tests like the Weschler IQ test. Apparently, even scoring the top score possible on IQ tests would leave you somehow using only a small percentage of it.

-- What kind of intelligence are we referring to?

Through most of the twentieth century, the term "intelligence" referred to two things: numerical abilities, and verbal abilities. Even to this day, people think of intelligence in these terms. Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligence. This theory makes absolute sense to me. I am quite gifted when it comes to numbers and verbal skills, but you should see me dancing or trying to play golf. There's people who can compose the most amazing songs, and yet have a really hard time doing a two digit subtraction. If we are going to compare the best mathematicians, linguists and writers, dancers, artists, etc to our own petty skills, we can say that not only we don't use 100%, but not even close to first tenth.

-- Is there a difference between capacity and potential?

The simple answer is yes. There is an amount of data that we can currently hold, and there is a potential amount of data we could hold. When it comes to the abilities of the brain, there are so many things we could be talking about that it is really hard to say what our capacity really is. Each of us has a different mnemonic capacity (ie ability to retain in memory). There are people that have amazing mnemonic skills, and people who can barely remember their own birthday. Most researchers suggest that the potential of your brain, depends on its ability to create new connections between the neurons--and not according to the amount the neurons we have, or the size of the brain itself. If this was the case, we could make the statement that men have more mental capacity, simply because the brain of a male is on average bigger than that of a woman. We cannot really study the potential of the brain, because we don't know exactly what the potential is. People can exercise a certain ability and become good at it, and there are people who seem to have the ability coded into their genes. In any case, the term "we don't even use 10% of the potential our brains have", sounds less irrational than "we don't even use 10% of the capacity our brains have". Have it your way, they're both utterly wrong.

-- Limits to our capacity

Even though the brain is a fascinating organ, and neuroscientists are left in awe every time there is a new discovery--the brain still has limits to what it can do. According to the latest understanding of cognitive psychology, the brain has a set of buffers and filters that help obtain the important information, and to discard the information that is not useful. The brain usually messes up and we end up remembering insignificant details, and forgetting the main point. Research suggests that these filters are implemented so that the brain can process less information, but more important information. As I am sitting typing this, I am not aware of every sound that I can hear. It is information that gets filtered out as I am trying to concentrate.

George Miller published in 1956 "The Magical Number". The magical number refers to SEVEN plus minus TWO. This means that the magic number includes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. The reason they call it 'magical' is because we seem to find it in a lot of places. For example, when given a long list of words and the subjects are asked to memorize such words and later on asked to recall them, the great majority of people will be able to recall between five and nine items. (This is, of course, without the aid of repetition). Human working memory can hold on average, seven items. There are strategies to make this number bigger, but in essence that is the idea. Why do we have this limit? No one knows for certain, but everything seems to point to having to refresh the working memory buffer in order to make room for new information.

So, do we really use 10% of the capacity of our brain?
No. We use all the capacity of our brains. When it comes to the potential of our brain and how far we can go by training it, the honest answer is that we don't know. We don't know just how much our brains can hold or do. And to be perfectly honest--we might never know.

Leader of the Free World

You know what seriously pisses me off? When americans refer to their president as "the leader of the free world". This is something I've heard from all kinds of people; republican, democrat, libertarian. However, they all have something in common--they are Americans. Only Americans refer to their president as the leader of the free world. I haven't heard anyone else, anywhere else on the planet use this term. So, what is the free world anyways? Countries that hold elections every 'n' number of years? Countries that have freedom of speech? Of course, Americans consider themselves to be "free", but according to my definition of "free world", I'd also add most of Latin America, most of Europe, some parts of Africa, and a big chunk of Asia. Who voted America as "our leader"? No one did. This is just a title that Americans like to place on themselves. If you analize it, Americans calling themselves the "leaders of the free world" shows an arrogant attitude towards the rest of the democratic countries. I bet most Americans even think that the idea of freedom and liberty originated in America. They're probably clueless as to what the enlightenment was. So, since I live in a country that is obviously part of this "free world", I take offense when Americans assume that their president is our leader. Why not my president? Or the prime minister of Canada? Or the president of France, Spain or Russia?

Americans, get off your high horse. The world does not revolve around you.

Hoarding and Keeping Useless Objects (Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior)

People often know that a common trait of obsessive-compulsive (OC) behavior is the difficulty of getting rid of useless objects. People like this will often safeguard old useless property even if it has absolutely no sentimental or pragmatic value. In the OC mind, the object might be useful or have purpose in the future. Even if that use is not so obvious. In many instances, this person will retain the object even though it has no rational purpose, but "just in case". For example, I still have in one of my drawers an AC charger for a StarTac phone that has not been produced since the late 90's. But hey... I'm keeping it "just in case". The OC mind is very good at rationalizing its inability to get rid of these objects. Usually I find myself figuring that if I throw an object out, I will find a need for it "soon". On a related note, the OC mind also has a tendency of hoarding. In many cases it is money, but it can also apply to objects. Someone with OC will develop a fear of impending doom, and riddles him or herself with "what ifs". Someone like this will very unlikely 'run out' of something. They always have a spare to take place of anything that is consumed. Just so you imagine, try to picture someone getting ready for a natural disaster and stocking up on goods. However, this is not your normal spare of vegetable oil--It really does mean HOARDING. Allow me to provide myself as an example. Even though I live on my own, I have 5 bars of soap, 3 bottles of liquid soap, 3 bottles of shampoo, more than 25 rolls of toilet paper, 6 tubes of toothpaste, and a lifetime supply of aspirine and pepto bysmol. Of course, if I ever were not able to obtain a new bottle of shampoo due to the economy or another catastrophe, shampooing my hair should be the last of my concerns. This is why it is so hard for a non-OC to understand the OC mind. "Always play it safe" is our motto, and we get ill ridden with anxiety when we lose control.

Anesthesia

Every time that I have a medical procedure which involved anesthesia, it is hard for me to try to ignore the fact that I should be hurting when I am not. Even if I am not able to feel a thing, there is a sense of wrong due to the cutting, severing or otherwise surgical procedure underway. Feeling numb is one of the most interesting experiences ever, and if you can tolerate it, I would suggest that you look at what is being done to your body while under the magical effect of anesthesia. However, not every person is able to handle this. To some, just the sight of blood can be reason enough to faint. Others, like myself, can stomach the situation without even blinking.

Is it the same with emotions? I draw an interesting analogy between the medical anesthesia and emotional anesthesia. This can be produced by drugs or even by the cognitive thoughts of the individual. In a way, psychiatric drugs are an emotion anesthesia. In some cases, the patient will not understand how is it that something that used to bother him or her does not have an effect anymore. Yet, like in medical anesthesia, the patient will now that there is cutting involved and there should be pain, but there is none. Interesting, no?

So it's come to this

So it's come to this...

As I am writing this, my Youtube account unver the name "Voicesinthehead" has been suspended for good. Youtube has a three strike you're out policy. The first two videos that were pulled were the "Fuck you Inmendham (NY style)" and the "Fuck you Inmendham (Mendham style)". Apparently, Youtube does not look kindly at people who go around telling people "FUCK YOU". This is so different to when I first started doing Youtube. If the Amazing Atheist did the videos he used to do nowadays, he would have been suspended ipso-facto. The third video that did it was a video called "Patience", in which I basically said that a video was coming up. Ironically, I can see how Youtube would be pussy enough to remove the first two. But my video "patience" had absolutely nothing wrong in it. I guess Youtube grows less and less sympathetic as your strikes increase. So that's it for now. The account has been PERMA-banned. I still have two more accounts. Voicesinthehead2 and YeOldeSupex. The truth of the matter is that I care little about having my account suspended. Most people will think that I am only claiming "SOUR GRAPES"! But, to be perfectly honest, Youtube had started eating into my life. I started living for Youtube and ignoring the important things in my life--including my job. Now that Youtube is gone, I can do more work, less youtube and perhaps start doing more interesting and important things. In any case, Youtube has become pretty stale and I think I have obtained all the juice I could from it. It almost seems as if everything that could be said, has been said.

My friends. After the whole Gary and Mendham fiasco a lot of videos were made by supposed "friends" saying that what I did was wrong. Videos from Rozeboosje and this jackass:

Now, the interesting thing is how these people have come to show me their true colors. They think that being a friend is making videos trying to ridicule me and Naomi. They're not being friends. They are being jackasses who claim that they are doing "the right thing". In reality they are only being pretentious assholes who want to appear as having more "moral" ground. To all you people I will say this. I will not contest wether you think if what we did was right or wrong. A real friend would send me a private message expressing their concern about the issue and disapproving. A real friend would have tried to contact me before making it public. These are not friends. These are hyenas who are only making fire out of the dried up tree. Especially those who are making videos JUST NOW, seeing that I am gone and not willing to respond. And to think that these are people that I actually defended and was loyal too. At least I know that if they did something I disapproved of, I would not just come out and make videos trying to ridicule them. (But that's just me). Maybe I DO have a higher moral ground.

DMCA hypocrisy

Of the two things that have happened this month, there is one that shocks me the way people have reacted to. This is, the DMCA that Naomi filed against a video that was uploaded using bits and pieces of her own footage. People are OUTRAGED!! How can an atheist do this!? How can someone that calls themselves a freethinker file a DMCA against a Muslim?! The video that was taken down has been re-uploaded several times, usually by atheists, who claim that freedom of speech should be defended at all costs. That's all nice and good, but when I asked them if they thought that giving a platform to something that went against their principles was ok, even if it was in defense of freedom of speech, they all just ignored my question and went to make videos about how freedom of speech is awesome. Sometimes I feel like I am talking to complete morons. I even stated that I was not challenging the idea of freedom of speech, but rather challenging the method to fight "DMCA Censorship". Of course, they completely ignored what I had to say and just kept making videos attacking me because I was "against freedom of speech". I guess sometimes human emotion is so strong that when someone is asking something different, we choose to ignore it, and just attack what is easy to attack and was never said. So to state it clearly

I AM NOT AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH. I THINK FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS A BASIC RIGHT AND WE SHOULD ALL HAVE IT. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE THAT IF FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TAKEN AWAY FROM MY ENEMY, I WILL FIGHT FOR HIS OR HER RIGHT TO HAVE THAT FREEDOM, BUT I WILL NOT ENDORSE OR PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR HIS OR HER IDEALS.

Most people will not get the above. They are so set in the "freedom of speech" is great rhetoric that it will just slip their minds what I am actually saying.

As for the hypocrisy--like I stated above, many people complained about the video being removed and have made an immense amount of videos explaining why the DMCA is frivolous (that is, without merit). The term "false DMCA" isn't really adequate because the DMCA did occur and had all the inclosuins necessary. I will not argue whether the DMCA is frivolous or not, or if it holds in a court of law. I will however say the following:

When Inmendham filed DMCA's against my video and those of JonesR and BCJ and theyoutoobpolice and all those other people who were included in his "slander" lawsuit, nobody--I repeat NOBODY reuploaded my video or any of the above. The circumstances were pretty much the same. In fact, the video DMCA'd by Gary contained about 2 seconds of a still image of his face. Where is the outrage in the community? Why wasn't my video re-uploaded a hundred times? Inmendham is also an atheist, and a "free thinker". So what is different? Nothing really, just the fact that we are all hypocrites in this game. Naomi filed a DMCA and that rendered a storm of shit. Gary has filed DOZENS of DMCA's (DMCA's that have no merit), and there is no outcry from the community.

Here's my plead to the community: If you really do think that DMCA's are wrong... will you re-upload that video that Gary DMCA'd? Or are you just complete and utter hypocrites? Yeah, that's what I thought...

Invasion of Privacy

LEGAL STUFF

Some people have called us stalkers, and have said we are bullies. I can understand that the idea of going to someone else's town is edgy and can make people a little nervous. However, they use charged words to get their points accross. Let's take a look at some facts:

March the 1st I rented a car in La Guardia airport with the intent of going to a town called Mendham, NJ

I drove with Naomi from New York City to Mendham, New Jersey. The road trip was a little over an hour.

The primary reason of our trip was to get out of New York City. Since I come from a very large city that is very similar to New York, I wanted to do something different outside of the city.

I will not deny that part of the reason I chose to go to Mendham, was just so that I could make a video against Gary.

We never stepped on private property.

We never knocked on anyone's door.

It is perfectly legal to show a house on the internet. There is no way around this. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, if you can see it from Public Property, you can film it, and you can upload it. (This does not apply to showing people's faces).

The first amendment of the constution of the United States protects the right to peaceble assemble. This means that I have the right to go to Mendham or any other town in NJ if I wish to do so. Regardless of whether someone I know lived in that town or not.

If Gary could prove that I am in any way a threat to him or his privacy, he could file a restraining order. No such order has been filed. Nor will it be, because there are no grounds for it.

That is it. What we did was 100% legal.

TASTELESS

Apart from being said that what we did was "illegal" which I already disproved, it is being said that what we did was immature, tasteless, classless, retarded, stupid, moronic, obsessive. Apart from that, people say that we have no lives, that we are lame, and that we "should not procreate". You know what? You are absolutely right. It was dumb, stupid, childish, immature, tasteless, etc. And it was also fun. We had a great time doing it and I don't regret it. If people don't care for what I do in my spare time, that is their problem and not mine. However, the funniest part is watching all these trolls critizising. Especially those who have become obsessed with Naomi and I. They are spending so much of their time attacking us, and yet they're spending their own lives saying that we have no lives. So, if we in fact have no lives... what does that say about the troll who spends hours and hours attacking those who have no lives? I will soon start worrying about those who worry and getting angry at those who get angry. To those faceless pathetic losers who are obsessed with Naomi and I, all I can say is: Matthew 7:3-5

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

I hate quoting from the bible, which is a book full of garbage. But this tract actually fits perfectly those who have become obsessed with us.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

There is a very good reason as to why Naomi closed her accounts, and I am keeping mine private for a while. I do not wish to discuss these reasons at the moment. I'll just say that what is being done to her is much much worse than what we could have ever done. It has nothing to do with the DMCA or Gary. For now, it will stay this way and I cannot assert if I will make more videos or not. If you want to contact me you can do so at supexcellency@gmail.com