– Buzz Aldrin Is Not All That Impressed With Walking on the Moon | Little Gold Men | Vanity Fair

I say, it isn’t.

A friend of mine, Tiffany, whom I have mentioned previously (11/04, 02/08, 11/08, 12/08 ), posted a cute article on her blog yesterday. “Occasionally SPAM is Worth It“.  In this article she attached a SPAM email she received.  As is typical with SPAM mail this email has no author or source, it just randomly appeared.  According to Google the list of items in the email already appears on over 11,000 blogs, and has received many comments from people on how much they relate to this list.

What strikes me as interesting is how the list highlights how similar we are as a society.  This list, in some way defines the culture of my generation.  It’s small everyday things like driving in rush hour traffic, using Facebook, having awkward conversations, and doing laundry that gives us commonality and sense of belonging to a culture.  If you were to go to rural China most of the things on this list would be completely foreign.

Our culture is continually evolving, and it is this very fact that allows foreigners to assimilate and become Americans.  It only took one generation from the time my grandparents came to the United States from Mexico for our family to be 100% American.  My father, aunt and uncle went to American public schools, they shared in the national experiences of WWII, the civil rights movement, 80′s fashion, and the Internet revolution.  This lifetime of shared experiences is what ties us together.  This is also why generations often have a hard time relating to each other, the culture of my father is different than my video game, Internet generation.

So the next time you think that you are having some unique experience and that there is noone that can relate to you, remember that out of the 300 million Americans, chances are that 80% of them are experiencing or have experienced exactly the same thing.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is “the list”:

Random thoughts from people 25-35 years old…

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That’s enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards
or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the F was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little
bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- LOL has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart,” all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

- How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a **** from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase ‘catching the swine flu’ to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: “Dave caught the swine flu last night.”

-I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

-There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Now, anytime you make a statement comparing one thing to another the only definitive way to decide which is better is to first determine the areas of comparison and define priorities. For example, recently a client of mine asked whether one window manufacturer was better than another. That is a nearly impossible question to answer. Are we talking about price, thermal resistance, light transmission, aesthetics, construction quality, environmental friendliness? The list goes on and on. Both manufacturers excel in different areas, so how do you rate one above the other? It is necessary to prioritize and give specific weights to the different criteria. In the case of the windows, my client valued aesthetics and construction quality over other criteria, but another client might place more value on a window made of recycled materials with a high insulation value. It’s important to note that my view of the United States is highly subjective. I lived in Europe for a couple years, and have traveled on a limited basis in North America, the rest of my world view comes from reading, and speaking with others who have traveled.

So, why do I still love the United States? Well, why wouldn’t I? Would I not love my country because we have a vibrant and active political scene where people with disparate points of view can express them without fear of being imprisoned or killed? Should I not love the United States because I disagree with political leaders who we chose in free and open elections? We have a representative democracy, I may not always agree with our leaders decisions, so I make a point of being informed and voting. Can I hate my country because we actively involve ourselves in trying to make the world a better place? I don’t think so.

One of the greatest things I love about the United States is her people. The United States is an amazing social experiment where people from every nation of the world, every religion, color, background, and walk of life, mingle and, for the most part, coexist peacefully. There is no other country in the world that has been so successful at bringing different people together. Despite our past differences, as a people we have consistently moved forward in giving equal rights and opportunities to all of our citizens. We even fought a bloody and costly civil war to free an entire segment of our population from the bonds of slavery.

We are also a generous people. Of all the countries in the world the people of the United States give more money annually to humanitarian causes than any other nation. According to the “2006 Index of Global Philanthropy”, published by the Hudson Institute, in 2004 we gave almost 1 trillion dollars to developing countries (page 15). We are often criticized because the United States government “only” gives 19.1 billion dollars annually (still the largest government donation in dollars by a factor of 2.2), but I would rather our government didn’t give a single cent of our tax dollars to foreign aid! Private donations to foreign humanitarian projects totaled over 71 billion dollars in 2004, I think that says much more about us as a people than what politicians decide to force upon us. A great example of our generosity was after the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Over 10 billion USD were collected for the relief effort and over 2.8 million came from the United States, more than 2 times as much as any other country. More amazing still, is that almost 1.9 billion of that was from private donations! To be fair, on a per capita and as a percentage of GDP Australia gave the most, $66 per capita, as compared to the $10 per capita of the United States, but this was due to a large government aid package as opposed to private contributions. I still think it’s important to note the impressive resources and potential for good that the United States has. (Figures taken from Wikipedia)

An unmistakable asset of our great country is the land itself. American’s have always loved nature and the great landscape on which we find ourselves. Over 578,000 square miles, almost 16% of the land area of the United States, is protected. Amazingly one tenth of the protected land in the world is within the borders of the United States. Within minutes of my home I can find numerous unspoiled and natural areas, hills, streams, and mountains all preserved for me and my children. Mountains, rivers, beaches, canyons, deserts, glaciers, marshes, and forests are all found in abundance. We are rich in natural resources and some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

Another thing that I still love about our nation is our military. Now before you freak out, let me explain. I hate war. I would love to, and I believe we someday will, live in a world where armies aren’t necessary. However, we live in a world where tyrants seek to oppress and control, and liberty and freedom is maintained only through a balance of military force. As a country we are involved in a highly divisive and controversial war in Iraq. Despite the controversy over the rational and justification of this war, it cannot be denied that we have the most technologically advanced, most professional, disciplined, and well organized army of any nation. The brave men and women of our military have time and again accomplished impossible tasks under impossible circumstances. I am grateful to the bravery of those who withstood the invincible British army in the war of independence. George Washington and the Continental Army made it possible for this country to blossom and flourish. I solemnly remember the over 360 thousand union soldiers who gave their lives to keep this country united, and I proudly remember the brave soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy to overthrow an evil and murderous tyrant who killed millions. War is gruesome and ugly. Approximately 15 million died in WWI and over 50 million in WWII. Yet if it weren’t for the United States military we would most likely be living in a world without the freedoms and liberties we so cherish. Time and again, the United States has fought to preserve freedom and liberty around the globe, and despite the political implications, I hope that we never loose our resolve to stand up for those who are oppressed and downtrodden.

This brings me to the last thing for which I am extremely grateful. Freedom. The Constitution of the United States is, I believe, inspired by God. This single document lays the framework for a government that has maintained and ensured freedom for millions over the last 230 years. The bill of rights has protected my right to political speech, has maintained my freedom to believe in God and practice the religion of my choosing, and has guaranteed that I will be given a fair, speedy, and public trial if I am ever convicted of a crime. Seeing the turmoil and problems in the world, I am more and more grateful for these rights every day. I am grateful that we don’t have cameras on every corner monitoring our every move, I am grateful that we don’t have police arresting us for not practicing the right religion, or worse, arresting us for only a suspicion of a wrongdoing and then holding us for years without any recourse. I am grateful that people are able to protest in the streets of San Francisco, LA, or Washington D.C. without being rounded up, slaughtered, and dumped in a forest. I am grateful that I live in a country where I can own my own business, get an education, work hard and become whatever I can dream. I am grateful that I live in a country where a college dropout can become the richest man in the world, and a poor immigrant from Austria can become governor of California.

I believe as a people we are too negative. We have so much to be thankful for. It is true that our freedoms are slowly being eroded and that the religious, democratic and capitalist foundations of our country are becoming progressively more atheistic and socialistic; however, I still believe we are the richest and most powerful nation for a reason. We have been blessed and I pray will continue to be. We need to take more time and reflect on all that we still have and then fight to regain what we have lost. The passion and dreams that drive the great people of the United States will continue to make this country the best in the world.

Almost four years ago Al Qaida attacked us on our soil. Since that day we have become comfortable again, we have returned to shopping and having fun. We have forgotten the danger as we involve ourselves in our busy lives. I think, that’s how it should be, to an extent. Terrorist strategies work in undermining the moral and will of the people, we haven’t let them do that to us. However, have we become so complacent that we have forgotten about the ever present threat? I don’t worry every day that my house is going to burn down, yet I still have smoke alarms and I don’t leave candles and burners unsupervised. The evil of Al Qaida is still burning. Why are we leaving our borders unsupervised? Why don’t we keep better track of who is in our country? Why do we still argue about fighting the enemy on their soil instead of waiting for them to come back over here?

Wake up America! We have been blessed with 4 years of peace in our land! Yes, we are at war, yes our service men and women are dying, but they are keeping the enemy at bay. We can never forget the lessons of 9/11. We can not let our guard down, disable are warning and safety devices, and forget to be vigilant.

My heart goes out to those who have suffered this morning, I ache for those who fell victim to the bombings in Madrid 16 months ago, and I remember in solemnity those who perished on September 11th, 2001.

Wake up America! Lets put our arms around our English friends, lets look forward with steely resolve, and let us unite to conquer the enemies of peace, democracy, and freedom. Al Qaida may glory in carnage today, but we will Not let them win.

May God Bless America and all of his children.

God Bless America

September 11th :3 years later I didn’t even realize that today was going to mark three years since a tremendous tragedy, until yesterday, and that made me feel so ashamed. I think back to 3 years ago and the pain, loss and tragedy that happened in our country. I think back to 2 years ago and the prayers and remembrances. And even last year, there was a beautiful memorial, telecasted all day long.

Yesterday I wrote the date on the top of my notes for class: 10 Sept 2004… and that was the first time I realized what day it was soon going to be. I was so embarrassed when I realized that I called myself a patriot, and had almost forgotten the day that caused me to turn to that portion of my heart. I felt selfish as I watched a report on the children in Beslan, Russia… over 300… dead…. and hardly anyone seems to care.

I wonder if patriotism can extend beyond a love for our country and become a love for all mankind. I found myself wanting to tell the Russian man featured on a small, seemingly insignificant, CNN report, who had lost his three children and his wife recently in the explosion of a school that it will be okay. “I’m sure you think it will,” he might say. “When it happened to you, everyone actually cared.” In remembrance of what happened to us, let’s pull outside of ourselves… just this once.

A child in Calcuta, India, prays for the release of the children in Russia.

Yes, a terrible thing happened to us, and we wailed and gnashed our teeth. Why, when it happens to others, do we not expect ourselves to care the way we expected to be cared about? Just a thought… God bless America…. God bless all mankind. God bless us to use His blessing to serve our brothers and sisters everywhere.

That is my prayer on this day : 3 years later. Find a new meaning to patriotism.

Tiffany