speaking_and_saying_nothing copypaste I don't really have anything to say. Sorry. I mean, I want to tell you something. I at least want to tell you something that will get you involved, something that will get you to sit up for the next eight minutes. Something that would make you pay attention. I want to tell you something. Something important. Something that you’ll remember years from now, something that will influence the way you live. I want to tell you something that will change your life. But, like I said, I don’t really have anything to say. You know, sorry. People speaking without saying anything is a serious problem that faces this nation. I will discuss the cause and solution to this problem in this speech, entitled, "Shut up, Stupid." And it’s not just me. It’s not just me that wants to impress you with his knowledge and doesn’t. It’s not just me who feels the need to say something important, but doesn’t know what it is. It’s not just me who tries to pretend that they know what they’re talking about when they really have no idea. Though, yes, I happen to be a great example of this. "Yeah, I’ll do original oratory. That’s great. Cause I’ve got plenty to say. Too much. I’ll lecture them on, uhh, the importance of, uhh, well I’ll figure that part out later. I've got plenty to say." And then I’m sitting around trying to think of a topic for my speech. I couldn’t think of any real topics. The only topics I could think of were just the stupidest topics. And I couldn’t think of a decent topic for so long that I had to actually start considering the stupid topics. Here’s a topic I actually strongly considered: how some words are other words backwards. You know, God is dog backwards. And I would spend ten minutes talking about that. "Well you see we speak all the time, but we never really realize that if the letters in the words we say were reversed, they would be completely different words." And you think that’s bad, look at the topic I settled on. Do you even understand it? People talk, but they don’t say anything. I mean, if you don’t get it by now, then, well, I’m probably going to fail. But really, too often people talk but they don’t really have anything to say. And it’s not like I’m the only one who attempts to enlighten and only confuses. How about you? Haven’t you ever opened your mouth with the intention of sounding knowledgeable without knowing what to say. Maybe your friend asks you whose gonna win the AL east this year. You don’t really know baseball, so you go "uhh, the giants." Cause they're in lots of sports right. Or your friend starts talking about someone who he thinks is a mutual friend but you don’t know. But you have to pretend you know who he’s talking about. "Oh yeah that guy he’s got that vowel in his name, he’s like, sort of, he has hair, a face, right, and he’s always doing that thing." Or how about your parents? Parents do this a lot- talk without saying anything. "Well son. I know you’re a little confused by what you saw on the TV. It’s okay to be confused. What you saw was a woman’s breast. And it’s very inappropriate for you to look at it. I don’t know why it was on during the superbowl, it confuses me... Yeah, that’s right, mommy has one of those, uh two even. Why are they inappropriate? Uh. Well. Look son, sometimes there are birds, and sometimes there are bees. And sometimes the and the bees, well they, heh... goodnight son. That went well." Yeah, thanks dad. Nice explanation. Oh, and teachers, they do this so much. Because they can, we don’t know if they’re right or not. "Mr. Teach, how does advanced photosynthesis correspond with mitosis?" "Uh, I’m glad you asked, because you see, the nucleus is actually attaching itself to the stem, and... uh... ectoplasm… uh… well… you see sometimes there are birds, and sometimes there are bees." "Yeah, yeah okay. We got it." You know who does it the most though. Politicians. And they actually do it on purpose, that’s the best part. They can just go on and on talking without saying anything. "Hello and god bless America. I know you’re wondering why we didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but the real issue here, is our great soldiers, and our great country. Our country, truly is, great. If you do not agree, then you are like the terrorists, who hate our freedom. And that is why we went to war in Iraq. America is number one. Don’t mess with Texas." Samuel Johnson, considered one of the greatest writers in English history, once said " 'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt." Unfortunately, we have trouble taking his advice. And all of us, we all do. You may be asking yourself, so what. Why is this phenomenon so important that it must be immediately addressed and solved? Well, it’s not. But it’s a little important, right? The problems it causes, while not usually a big deal, are certainly noticeable. First of all, the simplest to recognize is that it’s a waste of time. When someone’s talking to you without really saying anything they’re wasting your time. Right now, I am wasting your time because I didn’t have anything important to talk about. And all that time adds up. But not only is it a waste of time, but often it can have a negative effect on your thoughts, on what you believe to be true. If someone who really isn't educated in something but pretends to be says something to influence your thoughts, then you're going to wind up believing the stupid thing that he just said. So when the teacher tells you that ectoplasm causes advanced mitosis, and that answer isn't there on the regents, then you're not going to get a perfect score and you'll be a bad Stuyvesant student. Just because your teacher couldn't say "I don’t know, look it up yourself." And why is it so hard for the teacher to say that? Why is it so hard for any of us to say that? Pride. It's that simple. We don’t like to admit that we don't know everything. It’s natural. If someone asks you a question, it's easier to give some stupid answer than to say, "I don’t know." And now the most important part. How do we solve it? Unfortunately we can only make efforts towards not doing this ourselves, we can’t stop other people from wasting our time. But often the person who ends up the most embarrassed and who looks the most stupid is the person whose talking without saying anything themselves. Because they’re the ones inflicting this on the listeners, it's not the listeners' fault. So there are some things we can do to stop ourselves. The most important part is that you consciously recognize this problem, this phenomenon, and decide that you don't want to do it anymore. You will begin to recognize the situations that it occurs. You may feel yourself about to say something and be thinking "wait, I don't know what I'm about to be talking about." So just stop. Once you recognize the situation, then you have the power to stop. Well, that’s if you want to stop. This thing I describe is unique in that we recognize its stupidity when someone else does it, but if it’s you, then yeah. "Whew, dodged that bullet. Sounded pretty smart there. I am one smooth guy." It’s not until five minutes later that you realized you sounded like a moron. Yeah, so you know, maybe you can change. I know I can't. And that's why I gave this speech. Thank you. 070105 ... christ without the cross 90 percent of what we say is nothing. There is so much air in the conversations we have, so much empty space. At least 50 times each day i can feel something pulling at my soul. I feel it when i say something stupid. I feel it when I gratify a person for something I really don't completely support. I feel it in all the fake fraudulent things that i do. the problem is that each day passes and i do nothing about this, yet i am so quick to point out the flaws of others. I guess i do this so that i can hide my flaws behind theirs. it is the first thing i do when i am uncormfortable, put the focus on someone else. Now if i was to do something about this the outcome can be easily predicted. I doubt that it will be accepted because everybody is doing the same thing i am doing everyday. Would people tolerate something different? maybe maybe not. My easy prediction is based on an assumption. 070105 ... z equivocate 070105 ... minnesota_chris and I didn't read what you wrote, so it's all good 070111 ... unhinged reading what you do to keep up with the conversation at the bar sitting in the coffee shop peering over the top of that magazine on the sly keeping track of who looks your way get over yourself you've got nothing to say tell me something i haven't heard let me know how you really feel show me you have a brain in your head throw away your leaders and get real 070111 ... nom blah 070111 ... nom my boring blankness and repetitivenes 070111 ... nom s 070111 ... pete i'm over tired and coming down sick as a result i've been speaking much and saying little 070111 ... They call me truth Well...Ihave a whole lot of things I could say about this but I'm afraid it would mostly be useless fluff. So to summarize my worthless fluff I will say that i will concur with the general theme of this page. 070111 ... They call me Truth i still concur. 070518 ... Lemon_Soda Words are never meaningless. They just mean less the more we use them. 070519 ... starboy just shutup, everyone. 070520 ... hm meaning_less vs. meaningless 070521 ... They call me Truth im speakin, wordz capsized by open liez, DIGUIZED az truth. and u knew, I TOOK IT IN TWOZ, doses of the essence reminecent az flattery, BATTERY, ASSAULT, OF all the good that shud, that cud, be present in this world. FO NOW, I CALL TO THE OCEANZ AND THE SEAZ TO REMEMBER ME, THE WAY I NEVER WAZ, TO DROP BLANK PAGEZ, INSTEAD OF UNEARNED WAGEZ IN MY ALREADY WRITTEN BOOK, NEW PAINT ON MY CANVAS, CALL TO THE DRIVE AND PASSION INSIDE ME TO HAV MEANIN, FO FEELIN, SEALIN AWAY DEALINGZ THAT STAY BURIED IN THE GUUILT, WORTHLESS FILT THAT STICKS TO THE RIB, FATTENIN THIS COW FO SLAUGHTER, TODAY I PLAYED THE GAME AGAIN, all the same, lame wit it hangin on my chest, takin the best out of me. So u see, IT WAZ NEVER ABOUT WHETHER I KNEW IT WAZ A GAME I WAZ PLAYIN, I KNEW IT ALL ALONG. ITS ABOUT Y I AM SO COWARDLY, SO ENSLAVED WIT THE IDEA DAT I CANT BREAK FREE OF THE GAME, THE THOUGHT THAT I EVEN HAV TO PLAY. I LOVE U TOO, BUT U SEE DAT AINT EVER ENUFF, JUS LIKE MY KNOWLEDGE THAT I CONTINUE TO PLAY GAMEZ AINT ENUFF FO ME TO STOP. WE ALL DO WAT WE DO, I JUS DO IT LESS WHILE LUVIN U, AND I GUESS THATS ENUFF FO NOW. BUT THIS AINT ABOUT U, IT NEVA WAZ, BECUZ, IT IZ ME THAT MADE THE DECISION DAT I NEEDED TO HOLD ONTO TO U, JUS LIKE I HOLD ONTO THE IDEALZ THAT THE WORLD HAZ GIVEN ME INSTEAD OF WRITIN MY OWN. I KNOW, BUT I CHOOSE TO LIVE IN IGNORANCE. ITS THE CHOICE ALOT OF US MAKE. 070521 ... kuffsleeve the hipocrisy of this world, the lack of love and the need for greed. this is not planet earth, this is planet hell. the people that pray to go to heaven in the next life should start making heaven in this life instead... why are you living in the past and future? i just don't understand it. if everyone makes a positive action to be good to one another, to respect each other, surely it would work? no? 070521 ... In_Bloom When sitting side by side and our knees touch Press We're not speaking but we are saying something 081011 ... unhinged you are so full of shit i just want to reach over and shake you. your attempts to impress me meaningless, just shit that falls out of your mouth. after all these years of back_and_forth your attempts are just vain, superfluous bullshit that regularly fall out of your mouth. do_you_know_what_i_meant cause i have no idea what you are trying to do. 090212 ... unhinged ( did_you_know_what_i_meant ?) 090212 ... TCMT Looking back on some of this stuff, I see how much I've changed. And how much I'm the same. It's strange to have a record out there, that you can secretly go back to and see yourself. Wow! I was a bit crazy. Still am, I suppose. 131113 what's it to you? who go blather from