Now Serving Other Words
Many have pointed out the irony of individualism as a cultural value; in that irony is the writing on the wall of the universe, best seen on the walls of facebook and the logs of chatrooms.
-
The whole wants to take part.
The many want to be alone.
Good desireables are hard to get
because nobody wants them, and
because they're easy to get.
Where we can steal
without taking away,
we become what's stolen:
holders of infinite supply, and
holders of expendability.
Do you suppose
that Mr. T has a night elf warrior?
Do you suppose
what's supposed by everyone else,
that you're supposed to own?
Fulfillment of promises
that are lies is
in the stream of pieces
of desperately individual
identical identity crises.
-
What if everything we think is "good," simply by the unfortunate coincidences of an arbitrary universe, happens to go against the natural course of things? What if our strongest instincts (such as "avoid death") went against inevitable reality?
Our only hope against futility and despair is to flip Maslow's Hierarchy completely on its head. Now I just have to convince you all...
Edit: Kudos to Dave for inspiring the third stanza. Also, I made some changes to the first two lines of the first stanza, and the second line of the last stanza.
31 December 2007
27 December 2007
No Justice
Now Serving Evil and Harm
Welcome to the culture of fear, where children are raised to expect immortality and the responsibility for death falls entirely on humans, rather than fate.
Here, our Academy's administrators fear for their jobs, and so they see to it that our Academy's students have too much fear to see a counselor or seek psychological help. We continue to operate under the myth of a separate mind and body, and the myth that disease of the mind indicates human illegitimacy.
Here's the story.
There's a special circle of hell reserved for those who are complicit in this dismissal of mentally ill students. Can there be forgiveness for those who should know better, having access to the highest level of humanitarian and psychological education? They would have to realize their mistakes and offer restitution: meeting fully the expenses of those they've harmed, including tuition, books, food, counseling expenses, and all of that again purely on principle.
Barring that, I'd settle for their acquiring severe mental illnesses, being fired, and killing themselves.
Welcome to the culture of fear, where children are raised to expect immortality and the responsibility for death falls entirely on humans, rather than fate.
Here, our Academy's administrators fear for their jobs, and so they see to it that our Academy's students have too much fear to see a counselor or seek psychological help. We continue to operate under the myth of a separate mind and body, and the myth that disease of the mind indicates human illegitimacy.
Here's the story.
There's a special circle of hell reserved for those who are complicit in this dismissal of mentally ill students. Can there be forgiveness for those who should know better, having access to the highest level of humanitarian and psychological education? They would have to realize their mistakes and offer restitution: meeting fully the expenses of those they've harmed, including tuition, books, food, counseling expenses, and all of that again purely on principle.
Barring that, I'd settle for their acquiring severe mental illnesses, being fired, and killing themselves.
I Once Thought That Good Music Only Comes From India
Can someone help me out? I don't know whether to capitalize the first letters of "that" and "from" in titles.
"Indie" isn't a genre of music, any more than it's "alternative" or "punk." It is, in fact, better described as being analogous to the words "Simon Says."
Rather than a genre, "indie" is what comes before the genre of a piece of music. There's pop and indie-pop; rock and indie-rock; hip-hop and indie hip-hop. As commands in the game Simon Says should only be followed when preceded (no oxymoronic pun intended) by "Simon Says," so should music in the game Have Good Taste only be listened to when preceded by "indie."
We're playing Simon Says. Simon says buy albums from indie artists, and Simon Says steal albums from those artists whose music can only be perversely listened to as a guilty pleasure (or, whose music you put in your shared iTunes library so that others will deem you a legitimate human being). Incidentally, you are not a legitimate human being unless your tastes agree with mine.
As long as we're on analogies, I'll admit that my sententious musical commentary is analogous to a small-town newspaper's middle-aged video game reviewer. Half-remembered conversations, a brief career as a violinist in public school, and two-and-a-half music-magazine articles are the only non-auditory basis for my musical opinions. I'm still right though.
I mean, if that schmuck from the paper were to claim that Call of Duty 4 is a steaming pile of poopaganda, his severe deficiency in knowing what he's talking about would have no bearing on his being right. (That's because CoD4 is a steaming pile of poopaganda, even if it's fun and has original gameplay elements.) I can at least be right by fortunate accident (which I am).
Maybe next time I'll write about video games.
"Indie" isn't a genre of music, any more than it's "alternative" or "punk." It is, in fact, better described as being analogous to the words "Simon Says."
Rather than a genre, "indie" is what comes before the genre of a piece of music. There's pop and indie-pop; rock and indie-rock; hip-hop and indie hip-hop. As commands in the game Simon Says should only be followed when preceded (no oxymoronic pun intended) by "Simon Says," so should music in the game Have Good Taste only be listened to when preceded by "indie."
We're playing Simon Says. Simon says buy albums from indie artists, and Simon Says steal albums from those artists whose music can only be perversely listened to as a guilty pleasure (or, whose music you put in your shared iTunes library so that others will deem you a legitimate human being). Incidentally, you are not a legitimate human being unless your tastes agree with mine.
As long as we're on analogies, I'll admit that my sententious musical commentary is analogous to a small-town newspaper's middle-aged video game reviewer. Half-remembered conversations, a brief career as a violinist in public school, and two-and-a-half music-magazine articles are the only non-auditory basis for my musical opinions. I'm still right though.
I mean, if that schmuck from the paper were to claim that Call of Duty 4 is a steaming pile of poopaganda, his severe deficiency in knowing what he's talking about would have no bearing on his being right. (That's because CoD4 is a steaming pile of poopaganda, even if it's fun and has original gameplay elements.) I can at least be right by fortunate accident (which I am).
Maybe next time I'll write about video games.
25 December 2007
Why the hell would you ever listen to pop?
- Now Serving Real Music
- and bullet points, because I can
- check out the sign-post! It puts the "fucking sweet" in "awesome."
In Which
We Begin Everything This Way
Incidentally, I suppose A. A. Milne wouldn't say "Fuck You, Disney." But I would.
OH MY GOD. "Hail to the Thief!" I just now got that! Kind of like Radiohead in general, actually. I kind of like Radiohead in general, actually. I don't like Generals though, generally, but then I'm generalizing. I'm sure some of them are decent guys.
What Would Jesus Do? He'd buy a GPS, and you should too!
So, we've got Radiohead, Winnie-the-Pooh (or Winnie-ther-Pooh - you know what "ther" means, don't you?), grammar questions, inspired thievery sadly resulting in further consumer prostitution, and a rant about Church coming soon from our favorite blogger here at SGT, Joshua. Speaking of Joshua, I just got a lot of music from him.
You know what we've forgotten about? Tea! Gorram tea! I'm going to go get some green tea, because it's far superior to black tea. Take that, England.
"Nobody hates England." - Mr. Russon
I know I don't. A. A. Milne, after all, is English.
Incidentally, I suppose A. A. Milne wouldn't say "Fuck You, Disney." But I would.
OH MY GOD. "Hail to the Thief!" I just now got that! Kind of like Radiohead in general, actually. I kind of like Radiohead in general, actually. I don't like Generals though, generally, but then I'm generalizing. I'm sure some of them are decent guys.
What Would Jesus Do? He'd buy a GPS, and you should too!
So, we've got Radiohead, Winnie-the-Pooh (or Winnie-ther-Pooh - you know what "ther" means, don't you?), grammar questions, inspired thievery sadly resulting in further consumer prostitution, and a rant about Church coming soon from our favorite blogger here at SGT, Joshua. Speaking of Joshua, I just got a lot of music from him.
You know what we've forgotten about? Tea! Gorram tea! I'm going to go get some green tea, because it's far superior to black tea. Take that, England.
"Nobody hates England." - Mr. Russon
I know I don't. A. A. Milne, after all, is English.
20 December 2007
What would you say?
I am the bowl of petunias that said "Oh no, not again."
The voice of Men Who Know Better is ringing in my ears. I can't get it out. "TO REDUCE RISK OF FIRE. USE ONLY FPL BULB.RATED 18WATTS."
(They use all-capital letters to simplify things. It's a linga franca thing.)
Turns out it was the wrong light anyway.
The voice of Men Who Know Better is ringing in my ears. I can't get it out. "TO REDUCE RISK OF FIRE. USE ONLY FPL BULB.RATED 18WATTS."
(They use all-capital letters to simplify things. It's a linga franca thing.)
Turns out it was the wrong light anyway.
16 December 2007
Goddammit, Switzerland
Now Serving Racism
Go back to being my dreamy European socialist utopia, you silly bastards. :(
The black sheep refers to hoodlums? Oh! Well, that's fine then.
Go back to being my dreamy European socialist utopia, you silly bastards. :(
The black sheep refers to hoodlums? Oh! Well, that's fine then.
13 December 2007
The Brief Epic Ballad of Koroibos the Cook
by Me
Koroibos quick, of Elis born,
was in Hellas with gold adorned
thirty-eight score years and sixteen
'ere the common era was on the scene.
Over six-hundred feet he crossed
faster than the others, who lost
in Olympia that first time.
Koroibos was a runner fine!
Zeno notes with civility
"Complete divisibility"
impairs runner's ability,
but his paradoxes are silly.
The Athletae began with cheese
but later on luscious meet seized
to feed the swift human machine
they might even feast on goat's spleen!
But before any of these things,
the story of the cleats and wings
starts with Achaean Koroibos,
and now I need some rooibos.
Sources for this Historical Poem -
- http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/SportScience.htm ("Hellenica," by Michael Lahanas)
- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno/#ArgComDiv (Zeno's Paradoxes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-track-and-field.htm (College Athletic Scholarships, a recruiting service)
Koroibos quick, of Elis born,
was in Hellas with gold adorned
thirty-eight score years and sixteen
'ere the common era was on the scene.
Over six-hundred feet he crossed
faster than the others, who lost
in Olympia that first time.
Koroibos was a runner fine!
Zeno notes with civility
"Complete divisibility"
impairs runner's ability,
but his paradoxes are silly.
The Athletae began with cheese
but later on luscious meet seized
to feed the swift human machine
they might even feast on goat's spleen!
But before any of these things,
the story of the cleats and wings
starts with Achaean Koroibos,
and now I need some rooibos.
Sources for this Historical Poem -
- http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/SportScience.htm ("Hellenica," by Michael Lahanas)
- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno/#ArgComDiv (Zeno's Paradoxes in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-track-and-field.htm (College Athletic Scholarships, a recruiting service)
08 December 2007
07 December 2007
Where Evil
Now Serving a day that continues to live in infamy
Like alike - but different,
differently*
Impractical glass,
waxing with colors
that flow spontaneously
to the perfect demands
of particular, irretrievable
lines, today snapped
and became unwhole.
Only a friend can give
some life, without all.
Cruelty comes of limit:
measured in time,
we're unwhole: snapped
on both ends.
Nowhere better
is the victim the perpetrator
than the death of my friend,
not by shattering neglect
but by singling name.
*philosophical maxim from Aristotle
Like alike - but different,
differently*
Impractical glass,
waxing with colors
that flow spontaneously
to the perfect demands
of particular, irretrievable
lines, today snapped
and became unwhole.
Only a friend can give
some life, without all.
Cruelty comes of limit:
measured in time,
we're unwhole: snapped
on both ends.
Nowhere better
is the victim the perpetrator
than the death of my friend,
not by shattering neglect
but by singling name.
*philosophical maxim from Aristotle
02 December 2007
Post-Apocalyptic Weather
My window is presenting itself terribly.
The sky is in fascist uniform,
and the gates to the sun are locked.
White muck subdues the black tiled roof,
and the ruckus of the Thermo Kings
is the only sound, save for the rattling
of dissipating slush leaving gutters.
My window is presenting itself terribly.
It's abandoned the yellow star
I respectfully preferred
in favor of a nature that
I can't handle.
I think calling someone a "feminazi" is like complaining about the weather. Just because you think it should be sunny and warm all the time doesn't mean it is.
The sky is in fascist uniform,
and the gates to the sun are locked.
White muck subdues the black tiled roof,
and the ruckus of the Thermo Kings
is the only sound, save for the rattling
of dissipating slush leaving gutters.
My window is presenting itself terribly.
It's abandoned the yellow star
I respectfully preferred
in favor of a nature that
I can't handle.
I think calling someone a "feminazi" is like complaining about the weather. Just because you think it should be sunny and warm all the time doesn't mean it is.
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