The New Hotness and Other Things

Welcome, everyone, to my new and improved blog. Not to be confused with my old blog. Do you like it? Isn't it all shiny and pretty and new? Well, I like it.

You all are probably wondering why I started a brand new blog site instead of just continuing with the old one with the "new flavor". There are several reasons, the first of which is that I just wanted a brand spankin' new blank page. A tabula rasa if you will, with no leftover after taste of the old blog. Something that can and will stand on its own. I'm optimistic about this one.

Whether any of you have noticed it or not, the person who wrote most of the posts in that blog doesn't really exist anymore. Sure his physical features are still here; his intellect remains; his storehouse of memories persists, and also the core bits of his personality, but that's really about it. He had begun a transformation near the beginning of this year that I don't think has culminated yet. But here I stand with my ideals, values, beliefs, religious views, political views, emotions, reactions, goals, and social views all Reconfigured, rearranged, and reimagined. You may think I've just described myself as a completely new and different person in a Sean skin. You may be skeptical. That's all right. This declaration is really for myself. It is important to me for my own self-betterment. I don't expect for anyone to treat me differently based solely on the things I've said or haven't said here. Just keep it in mind, the next time you say something to me, you might be a little surprised by my response.

To describe my new outlook could take up quite a lot of space and may be the subject of some future posts, but I'll lay out a little bit here:
First and foremost in importance is the way I feel I should treat people; treatment free of malice and hate.
A quick note about religion; My actual religious views haven't changed, what has changed is the way I view religion (does that make sense?). I'm still a hard agnostic. I don't believe we can know anything about whether there are any gods or not. But, I no longer believe that all religion is intrinsically bad for society, mainly because my understanding of world religions has grown drastically. This is stuff that I can go into in greater detail in another post.
Something that has had a strong impression on me is The Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism. At an earlier time in my life this would have been surprising to me. I haven't dealt much before in the fundamental tenets of a religion.
You might or might not have noticed the title of my new blog, The Subjective Truth. It's a symbol of the theme of this blog and its opinions. They are just that, opinions, the truth only as I see it, and will never be meant to be taken to heart if you feel differently. The key here is open-mindedness.
Here are the things that I hold as most important:

• I should always strive to be open-minded.
• I will follow The Golden Rule. Treat others as I would have them treat me.
  
• Every person is entitled to an opinion and has the right to not be berated or talked down to for it. This includes religious, political, and philosophical ideas.
  
• Be happy, friendly, and keep a positive attitude.
• Don't worry about things that are out of my control.
• Don't try to change people or influence their behavior. Every person will do as they will and treat me as they will. It is their right and it won't affect one way or another how I treat them.
• All life has an equal right to exist. That includes plants, animals, humans, and bugs. I will endeavor to not kill anything in vain.
  

I realize that some of these are very different notions from how I've acted in the past. The truth is, I've always held them as important, I've only just now realized how to become that kind of person. I want you all to realize that I haven't created a new religion here or something. I don't want or expect anyone else to adopt any of these views. I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm just saying that it's not my intention to try and pass them to you. As I said, in summary of several of those points above, every person has the right to be who they are.

Thank you for visiting and reading my new blog. I can't make any promises as to how often I'll post because I've never been very consistent on adding new material to the old one, but I will endeavor to post as often as I have something positive/inspirational/philosophical to say.