kind that makes you review the decisions you've made that brought you to the place you are. Silence is a thing, almost something that you can grasp and have thoughts about, enough to fill books and computers and word documents. It’s a very powerful subject or force very thought provoking indeed. That’s why having human contact is so important it breaks the silence and kills the thoughts that can drive a man insane. I’ve been effortlessly writing about this subject for over 250 words without another thought, i’m playing poker while i’m doing it and i’m winning there’s so much that silence can make you think about and that you can think about silence it is an effort less subject. Self reflection is one of the most powerful tools people can use for self improvement, but it is also one of the most dangerous things one can undertake, it’s like Inception you can go deep but if you go too deep....you can get stuck and go insane in your thoughts. Be careful.

someone else, not through facebook chat or skype but just talking to a real live person just casually about nothing at all. Meaningful human contact with another person is a basic necessity to keep a person sane, just kind of blow off some steam talk about whatever just to break the silence. Like you said not just normal silence the silence that invades your brain and thoughts, the kind that really makes you want to do something with your mind and with your life the

My roommate had to go home this weekend for family matters and i had the room for myself for the whole time. When i thought about it seemed like it'd be pretty cool, being able to do whatever i want with out worrying about bugging anyone or being too loud or rude. It was pretty nice the first couple of days but by the third and forth things started to get kinda old. People came and went and it was fine most of the time but when i find that no one has come for maybe an hour things got old, i was bored and wanted some kind of contact with

The labels that we give and that we give ourselves are very powerful in terms of our views. How we view ourselves and others are the main way that we weigh our decisions, like who we interact with and how we interact with them. When we place a label on someone we’ve judged them and set the standards of the conversations and interactions we’ll have with them from the point of judgment and on. That’s why you have to be careful with the labels that you give people because if they’re incorrect, you can disrespect and misjudge a person very severely and greatly disrespect them. Although most people say that you shouldn’t judge people as soon as you meet them, that is really just plain instinct and everyone’s first reaction, and if you don’t do that it would be pretty odd. ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Is a good thought but in reality it can’t be evolutionary safe, if you see a tiger you can’t think “hey it’s a tiger but if it really could act like a friendly puppy, you never know!” that’s just plain foolish and thinking like that will get you killed. Although subjects like racism are obviously not acceptable, still you have to be cautious, no matter who I see in an alley I’m going to be cautious white, African American, Asian, I’d even be afraid of a Frenchman. In order to be safe with the judgments you make you have to be carful as of what you base them off of. Judging someone based on the color of their skin is just plain wrong, what you have to observe is how they hold them selves and how they interact with others. Generally disrespectful and rude people are who you most likely want to avoid no matter what they look like or where. People who have respect for others and hold their heads high are the people you want to interact with. No matter what the uncontrollable factors in people are that’s how you should choose your associates, that is the true ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ rule.

Humans, by nature, are a product of their environment. That is why it is not surprising that most men have an obscured view of what women really want. But on the flip side this is also why people just assume that all men are the same, we’ve all seen the movies with the douche bags that everyone loves to hate and the hero nice-guy that no one can ever find in the world to make them truly happy. Every one assumes that all guys are douche bags like in the movies and TV and sure that’s true for some guys, but what you’ll find is that the way people act and who they really are, are two different things. People act the way do because that’s what they assume people want them and expect them to act like because we all watch the same things and that’s what we all see. Even the “outcasts” and “non-conformists” all really act the same, or is that what we just assume? Are we that trained that we just think that’s the way the world is? You can argue with yourself all day who has the real grip on reality, or you can just say screw it and be the best person you can be and that’s the way we should all be. Just be nice to people and they’ll be nice back, look out for yourself and others and karma, or God, or whoever will have your back. Of course we all know the saying, “Nice guys finish last.”, and if that’s the truth I don’t care if I finish last I’m going to be a good person and be happy with my life and that’s all I want out of it. Have fun and be happy that’s the only reason I’m here, and if anyone has a problem with that frankly I don’t care. Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to go around and do whatever I want with no regard for others, that’s not me. I think every human deserves a degree of respect, but at the same time they can lose that respect and they can gain even more it’s all about how you hold your self.

Family and friends tend to be the strongest connections we have in life, so losing them must be one of the hardest things to occur especially in large numbers. But your experience is unique because you get to see who your true friends are, the ones that will and have stuck with you through thick and thin. Obviously the first statement is a bit obvious, if you really have a deep connection with some one they will be your closest friends or even adopted into your family, socially or legally. The second statement is a bit of a bittersweet truth as well, because even though now you know who your real and true friends and family are you no longer get to see them at your leisure or as much as you want at all. Naturally as you said you replace your friends and family who have deserted you, or maybe are just too busy to make the time as sad as that is, with the people around you who are standing by you as you go through a difficult transition or as they may be going through the same thing you are. You can stand by them like you want your friends and family to stand by you and that way your complaints won’t fall on deaf ears because you practice what you preach. Practicing what you preach is the sign of a good man, no matter what situation they are in, it shows character tenacity and shows that you are not hypocritical. That, to me anyways, is one of the most important qualities about a person and that is what I base my decisions about who the people around me, my friends and family, are. Understanding your situation is one of the major ways that hypocrisy is avoided, like you said the men who are assholes are the ones who lose a lot of their family and friends and are also the ones who still think they should be getting visits. Traits like these usually group themselves together in people which is why all people like that are not liked, and all seems to be the same.

These facts mirror what the legal system of the United States has become nowadays, a place where lawyers go in to win no longer uncover the truth. The truth should be the only objective that anyone has when going into the court system but sadly it has become more of a game than anything else. The courtroom is a stage and the lawyers, defendants, prosecutors, and witnesses are actors that play on the jury’s and judge’s emotions and lack of knowledge on certain subjects to sway their judgment one way or another. Everyone seems to recognize that the US legal system is flawed but they accept it and do nothing to try to fix it. Instead those flaws are being manipulated so lawyers can make their name, and of course all their money, with the next big court case. Although I don’t know the details on any of the 464 children who were sentenced I can see no way that some one can make such a terrible decision that young that would have the need for them to be separated from the rest of the world for the rest of their lives. Even if they did do something one that level how at such a young and immature age could they possibly grasp the gravity of the decision they are making? Simply put there is no way they could. Now naturally some people mature much faster than others and some of those 464 could have been mere days before their 18th birthday but the funny thing is you never see a case where an adult is tried as a juvenile do you? So if there is adequate grounds for a child to be tried as an adult why are there no grounds for the opposite to happen? The answer is simply put the already flawed system is being manipulated in terrible way to make fantastic endings to court cases where “justice is served” now naturally most of this knowledge and information is based on television but at the same time how could this not be true in many cases when there is a single state with over 450 lifers who have been incarcerated since before their 18th birthday?

After reading Remember, it really shed a new light onto the drinking that I’m partaking in and that is going on around me every weekend at Penn State. How quickly the situation can change from a lighthearted and fun time to life and death. The dangers that we expose ourselves to on a nightly basis are vast and numerous. Even something as simple as hanging out on a balcony can turn deadly with a simple misstep from alcohol. But this adds another layer to the thought process, how are the people around you going to react to the alcohol and how are you going to react to the people around you. It is a terrifying thought process indeed but it needs to be done so that people realize how dangerous drinking really is. As the poem shows the things that you remember aren’t the trivial emotions that you were feeling at the time or the adrenaline pumping through your veins but the regret and trouble that you caused. This, when accompanied by the endless hours of looking inward that comes with prison is probably the worst punishment you could put on a person. Which is why the life sentence came about, so that the guilty can realize what they have done and begin to feel the guilt for it. Repenting is the next step in this process, coming to terms and accepting what you have done and finding a way for you God and the world around you to forgive you. This is often by endless hours of review over the sins you have committed and how you and you alone are the guilty party in the matter. Most people will never find a way to forgive you, taking a person’s life is taking everything they have from them and taking them from everyone that means something to them. The life sentence is evening this happening and the poem highlights what most lifers have to go through in their everyday, which fulfills the purpose of the life sentence making the guilty repent for their sins. When they have done that they can come to terms with what they have done and forgive themselves, which many people call being at peace with God.

That being said prison is an eye opening experience, but it is bittersweet because there is nothing you can do about it, the freedoms that you are let with makes you see realize which of the freedoms you lost are the best ones. The ones that you really can't do without and the ones that you will only be able to catch glimpses of from time to time. So you should turn to the freedoms you're let with, like your ability to look inward and observe your soul and your decisions in life, maybe even become spiritual.

Looking at it from that perspective prison seems almost like a freeing place, where a person can straighten their priorities and reflect on who they are and what kind of person they want to be. But no one wants to be sent to prison, even after hearing that, which shows how addicted we are to all the things that don't really matter. Most people think about not being able to watch TV, sleep in, or eat junk food. But what they should be thinking about is not being able to see their family and friends or spend time with loved ones. Those are the things in life that really matter and are most often taken for granted, the worst part is that the people who realize are usually the ones that have lost loved ones, or the ability to visit them anymore.