Exo_Nazareth

My Dad left her about 700,000 and a House worth about a million dollars. She has his pension which is like 2,000 a month and she makes about 1,500 a month off of her 9 romance novels she wrote 10 years ago (e-books kind of gave her a revival; her name is Jennifer Horsman if you are curious). I know if I invested 1.7 I could easily get her 100,000 a year. which is enough to live off of (she knows very successful brokers and I know they would let her invest even though they usually only take people with more money). I live with her and can't find a job. My sister is an educational Psychologist and makes enough money to live off of. My Grandmother also makes like 1.5k a month off of her husbands pension. I guess it's a lot of money, but my mom is only 50, and she's very healthy. So 40-50 years is a long time. Should I be worried or not?

I was raised as a democrat but do not pretend to hold democrat beliefs anymore. I have disdain for the last ten or so presidents with some being worse than others, but I have serious disdain for all of them. I don't like democrats or republicans particularly much, but I wish to better understand both positions (as I rack my brain trying to make sense out of either position, but both ideologies seem to be almost self-defeating). I want republicans or democrats to tell me, why they call themselves republicans or democrats, what they look for in politicians and what they hope the future of America looks like. Oh and for bonus points, tell me which past presidents you look up to as good or great leaders and why (as in what policies of theirs did you think were beneficial).

This is no trick. I merely do not understand why someone would call them self a republican or democrat in this day and age.

I'm really curious what you guys think? From what I know about history, Feudal Japanese, Pre-Colombian Aztecs, the Mongols, and WW2 Germans seem to take the cake, but I bet there are a lot of other hyper violent cultures. I'm curious to know about them.

If I had to pick one, it would be Feudal Japan. Ignoring the extremely frequent executions and the societal class created to deal with the dead, I know of warlords who loose 70% of their troops against each other, three times. And they remained friends. I think the violence in Japan was so orderly, we don't think much about it. Today Japan is quite the opposite, but there was a time when Japan sat in civil war for centuries (sort of; they actually often times would have a somewhat centralized government that condoned civil war; It's a little bit like Catholicism and Medieval Europe).

But I don't know much about history and I bet a lot of people will give better answers.

I have a group of friends who I like to go out to bars and clubs with, but we can't seem to find any good ones. Does anyone know of any cool clubs or bars in SoCal?

I just took the Asvab and got 99 percentile. Because of that and the other scores my recruiter told me I could pick any MOS I want. I'm at a loss. I kinda want to sign up as 18X (special forces candidate) and part of me wants to sign up as 68W (medic). Anyone have any ideas of good military jobs (I like challenging jobs rather than unproductive boring jobs).

The signal strength is fine no matter where I am, but I loose connection depending on where I go. I can still see network, but I can't connect. Any ideas on what this might be and how I might go about fixing this?

She's Vietnamese, and has given him a durian, and a jelly candy that looks like an ovary, which he believes are fertility symbols. I wish I was joking, but I truly am serious. I'm trying to convince him that this is a ridiculous thing to give a girl. What do you guys think, and how should I convince him that this is a bit creepy?

I know there is a name for doing this, but I can't remember it exactly what it is. To explain better I'll give an example. He drew the word Laguna, but the way he drew it, it was Beach when you flipped it over. Does anyone know the name of this?

In my father's 20s, his hair turned white (not grey, but totally white). Mine is starting to do the same. Does anybody know of a genetic condition in which your hair turns white at some point in your life, because I have never heard of anything like that?

He died, as most do. How am I supposed to worship a God that shoots lighting at my friends? He was a buddhist. The guy was a vegetarian for christ's sake. Twice a week he volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. I can't recall one of those cancer walks that Huang didn't go to. God never gave him a chance to convert or anything of the sort. He was hit by lighting and he died a few months ago. There is no jutisfication for sending a good person to hell with an act as random as getting hit by lighting.

I have a friend who continually receives static shocks. Probably close to a hundred times what I do. They range from mild to severe (and sometimes they leave pain). I have no if this is caused by a condition or if he's just prone to this for some reason. I can't seem to find any disorder on webmd or other such sites that causes static electricity which is reassuring, but this weird condition seems to be worsening. Has anyone ever heard of any such condition? (he's convinced that it's not anything to worry about, but complains to me constantly over AIM about this)

My father uses bittorrent to constantly download things and its really slowing down the internet. I have a motorola modem/router. Is there any way to stop bittorrent (he doesn't know much about computers so I have full administration rights over my and his computers along with our router).

Now I am into this so called progressive rock (and know what is and what isn't from it's history) but many people have different opinions on what Prog is. What is your opinion?

I have a great private teacher. She is really an amazing teacher, but her methods are far from orthodox. I have to take piano in college so I ended up with a more traditional teacher. One tells me to rotate my wrist and the other tells me that's bad form. Which is correct?

My friends an I were in the guitar center for nostalgic reasons and I went over and played on the pianos. This was a child 8 years old who had been playing piano for 3 years. He was far better than me and far better than almost any pianist I've met who was my age. He was improvising jazz and it sounded indredible. He was playing at maybe Quarter Note=220 or so. His hands were like a flurry and he was just frankly incredible. I know Listz was a great pianist by the time he was 11 and this kid was how I imagined Listz would be. Has anyone ever met a child prodigy musician before?

I've taught kids all my life but never once have I taught them music. I have a piano teacher who when I told her I was going to volunteer to teach, she told me not to teach different perspectives on the same thing. She said just because to me it's so easy because I've been doing it a long time to understand these things is not an easy task. I understand that.

From people who have taught music do you have any other pointers like this?

Well I have been meaning to ask this question for a while. This more often than not gets labeled as the greatest piece of music ever written. I used to believe this but I have heard just too many great pieces of music to label any single on the best. Once a long time ago somebody told me this was his autobiography. I started writing on this to explain what I thought each movement meant (I am unsure whether or not it's true but I have always thought it's an interesting thought) but then I realized it would be better if I asked you to do it.

So here's the question. Do you or do you not agree with the statement "Beethoven's Ninth is his autobiography"? Explain why or why not (I will post what I think a little later).

I don't usally post my music on YA! (I think I did it once before because I was curious to whether I had written a Fugue correctly), but this is a piece that I don't like that I was playing loudly from my computer and my Mom asked which composer that was and I told her it was me and then she send it to a friend of hers who happens to be a musician who loved it. I really just wrote a very classical tonal Rondo because I have been listening to Beethoven's Violin Concerto and when I was finished I thought I failed (there seems to be a problem I just can't place my finger on). What do you guys think?

http://www.myspace.com/jonpaulflowers1379

(it's 5 minutes sorry for the length)

I have heard that Bach though Rameau's ideas were ridiculous (obviously time has showed they weren't). I have never been able to find a source on what Bach thought of Rameau. It's hard to believe Bach's couterpoint works that perfectly to Rameau's ideas and Bach didn't use it (I mean they teach us Rameau's idea of chords and Bach's idea of coutnerpoint in school; it's basically the entirety to tonal harmony). Anyone know what Bach thought of Rameau?

Every time I hear some pop rock or rap song I listen closely to figure out why it's popular. I find this quite interesting and I have recently started to figure out why it is popular. There is art in it and I am seeing that now; unfortunatly it is not the music that is art (art has nothing to do with making money and that's all music is about nowawadys). The art is the singer or band's persona as this has the greatest effect on popularity. I think the greatest example ever of this is a recent pheonmenon. Miley Cryus has the persona of a teenage rockstar as this is a fantasy most if not all teenagers (including myself) share. It's why a million guitars sell in the U.S ever year alone which is close to ten times the amount of the next instrument down (which I'm sure would be a drum set or electric keyboard). Her own songs appeal to this persona as even more evidence, but with every band or singer today a persona appears (more in details).