okay
harry chapin is declared
the OFFICIAL greatest singer next to cat stevens
i don’t mean just his music, i mean the lyrics
wow

harry chapin and cat should’ve gotten together to do something
it would’ve been an amazing
i can just imagine it

wow

harry chapin
:thumbs up:
:thumbs up:
:thumbs up:

an incident today in english class really made me wonder…
we’re starting on a new book, brave new world by aldous huxley
i’ve heard of it, and now i’m reading it
at any rate, the teacher told us to start reading, and left the class for a moment
a couple of black girls started putting up objections, “oh i’m not reading this”
i thought it was because they felt it was too complicated for them (which i felt it was, a bit — definitely not like many other books i’ve read)
at any rate, i ask “why not? it’s sort of confusing?”
“no, i haven’t even started reading it yet, it’s just one line, on page nine…”
“… you should see the way a negro ovary responds to pituitary!” (quoth the book)
i say, “the book was written in the 30s, it was a common reference back then. it’s not meant to be offensive”
they kept objecting, and i said “listen, how many times have you heard the word in a rap song in the past thirteen days?” (my own personal count … countless)
the girl responded “oh, don’t get me started”
i’d rather not, so i didn’t
cuz she can really get started
(but then again, i’m not a chia pet)
at any rate, i let it go
the teacher came back in, they pointed it out, she talked about how the word was common in the vernacular back then and stuff
and described how even martin luther king jr. used the word in his most famous speech, and she said the word wasn’t discontinued till the 70s
i wanted to argue that malcolm x was one of the pioneers of discouraging that word, and starting using the words “african-american” and “black” instead
didn’t get that chance (though she did respond to a separate query at the end of the class with a ten minute lecture on the history of england and britain)
at any rate, that seems to have calmed the girls down
but that was a stupid objection
you could see right through it, they just didn’t want to read the book
it’s like blaming the arrow or the bow because your shot’s off
it’s stupid
i’m not being racist, i’m not saying all black people would use petty excuses not to read a book
i’m just saying it’s stupid to use your skin colour as an excuse for your own incompetency

whatever

how can i tell you how i feel/
without making it sound superficial/
you’re real yet you seem surreal/
for me your very presence is beneficial/
words cannot contain the emotion/
yet if i say nothing i will explode/
why do i relish the taste of this potion/
that makes the heaviest burden seem a light load/
i can’t imagine ever telling you/
maybe i will some day in the fall/
maybe some day before we all go to/
the final resting place of all/
what will you say if i do say it/
will you embrace me or label me a hypocrite?

this is one of the crappiest poems i’ve ever written
it is a sonnet

i wrote it because i had to get a friend motivated to write one

that’s all

otherwise i’ll stick to amateur crap rap

and short bursts of quartets if i do go for any poetry

i don’t get this
i’m so sleepy
i got over ten hours of sleep last night
but i’m so sleepy now
i can’t concentrate
but i don’t want to take a nap, or that’ll throw off my whole plan for a consistent schedule (which i REALLY do need)
so hopefully i can wake up according to my new schedule (6:00 am) and get my work done …
(watch everyone laughing at me)
well at least there’s no one online at that time asking for advice, or for help on using “ponder” in a sentence, or wondering why the sky is azure blue, or why fools fall in love
so i can just get my work done without any distractions
i could also just close my computer now
but that’s really out of the question…
i can work without computers, that’s fine, but not without the web
you should see me when my net connection goes down at home
i’m jumping all over the place trying to get it working like a maniac
and can’t do anything till it comes back online
if there’s one thing i’m addicted to, it’s the net
nothing else
nothing else whatsoever am i addicted to
nope
nothing
except being redundant

yeah
ok
so sue me
i haven’t been blogging as much in the past few days
but it’s not like anyone bothers to read the stuff anyway, now do they?
let’s see, this site was rightly assessed as having no blog content
it does, actually, but barely any
it’s an interesting site, nonetheless, if you bother checking the stuff out on the left
but that can’t keep people entertained for too long, as that’s barely updated, either
(except, perhaps, the list of groups/people whose music i listen to — that grows organically …)

well last night, i got home at 7:30 pm from the hospital (where i volunteer — i’m not on a dialysis machine or something)
and immediately slept — i wasted no time — i woke up briefly at 12:30 am but then i went back to sleep, and finally awakened this morning at 5:40 am
ironically, i feel very tired and fatigued … all my shots were off at archery (well almost all … i’m not that bad)
you see, monday i was operating on two hours of sleep
and tuesday i was operating on one hour of sleep
so that’s around 3 hrs out of 48 that i was operating on … and that’s why i slept over 10 hours
oddly enough i didn’t feel so tired on those two days (except when i slept in math and society, respectively)
[i did feel tired at the hospital, though]

i was working on a chemistry presentation, which i think went fairly well — i made it in flash, and i would put it up on the web, but it’s 1.1 mb and has no explanatory notes (as my partner, the guy who created turban man, and i simply gave the data right off the top of our heads, it was a pure improv presentation as far as words were concerned)
it was about the origin of the earth’s atmosphere
and i actually laced it with quotations from the Qur’an
both from verse 30 in surah (chapter) 21, to the effect of how the heavens and the earth were of one unit, then God separated them, and that God created all living things from water
(which corresponds effectively with the big bang theory, 15-20 billion years ago, and the fact that cyanobacteria appeared in the earth’s oceans around 3.5 billion years ago and was the first form of life — according to science, anyway)
[both of these being relatively modern facts, nothing one would expect from a book 1400 years old]

also, i worked on a script for a macbeth presentation we had to do (we were presenting the last two scenes)
so we basically monty pythonized it
to make it ginormously hilarious
lemme give y’all a couple of examples
some witches prophesize to macbeth that he will not face his demise unless he is faced by one NOT born of a woman
so there’s a siege against macbeth’s castle (macbeth is an evil and tyrannous king who usurped the throne unrightfully by murdering the ex-king — so the rightful heir to the throne is coming back with help from the english army to get it back)
and some of the army breaks in
one of soldiers, young siward, challenges macbeth
and in the fight, he is supposed to die — proving he is, indeed, born of a woman

we made it go something like this:
[macbeth stabs young siward, young siward falls]
macbeth: hah! your death proves that you were, indeed, born of a woman!
young siward: actually, i’m not dead …
macbeth: okay … your mortal wounding proves that you were, indeed, born of a woman!
young siward: actually, i think i can pull through … maybe i should go for a walk
macbeth: oh, for the love of — [stabs and kills young siward]

now that was ripped off monty python, more or less
but this was an original, between the hero of the play, macduff, who is actually not born of a woman (in the play he was born prematurely, perhaps born through a caesarian section)

this was our spin:
macbeth: …for only one NOT born of a woman can kill me!
macduff: hah! the joke’s on you macbeth, for i was not born of a woman!
macbeth: what? your mother wasn’t a woman?
macduff: no … she was a cow
macbeth: your mother was a cow?
macduff: well, she looked like one!
macbeth: wait, how many udders did she have?
macduff: twelve…
macbeth: hah! cows don’t have twelve udders!
macduff: well my mother did!

the entire class was laughing, it was a riot
but i don’t think the teacher appreciated it
perhaps it had to do with the fact that before we did the play, i gave a summary of what really happens in the play

and so:
me: … and so the righteous heir of the–
teacher: [interrupts] you mean rightful heir of the throne, righteous carries an entire different meaning
me: –the righteous AND rightful heir of the throne, malcolm, is restored …

apparently, that was “dry” — as most of my classmates thought — and the teacher was a bit peeved at that
and so she didn’t enjoy the rest of the presentation, i guess

at any rate
we had a riot doing it
it was great, it was different from all other plays
and the students all appreciated and loved it
so if our marks are martyred for this cause of non-conformity, then so be it! (to a certain extent, of course, too many marks and it’s back to being like everyone else …)

“dang diggy diggy dang diggy dang dang” (from bring it home by swollen members)
yes, dang diggy diggy you, all of you
yup, this is my largest blog entry in days

harry chapin is amazing

yeah, i gotta go temporarily or i would’ve ranted more…
btw, my new “signature” of departure is:
“take care
peace
salams and chickens”
the phrase “salams and chickens” is copyrighted and trademarked, i’d appreciate it if no one else used it

thank you, biters

today’s song of the week:
“all my life’s a circle” by harry chapin

that guy’s amazing
i’ve had one of his songs (cat’s in the cradle) for months, but i didn’t bother to get anymore
but when i did, i found out they’re just as good as cat’s in the cradle
(many people think cat stevens performed cat’s in the cradle — that’s not true, he never did — that’s how i found the song, then i found out more about it and found out about harry chapin)
chapin has good music, and good lyrics, make you think
other songs include:
“taxi”
“dreams go by” — highly recommended
“a better place”
go find out

great songs

and today’s song of the week:
“cat’s in the cradle” by harry chapin

today’s song of the week:
“ciao!” by lush

heh

today’s song of the week:
“ocean spray” by the manic street preachers

the tune’s amazing, and the lyrics should (should) [should] make you think, reflect

(once again, much thanks to princess leia for the introduction)

my official theme song:
i was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
but heaven knows i’m miserable now
i was looking for a job, and then i found a job
and heaven knows i’m miserable now

what she asked of me at the end of the day
caligula[1] would have blushed
oh “you’ve been in the house too long,” she said
and i naturally fled

– the smiths

1 – the only reference to “caligula” i could find:
emperor of rome (37-41) who succeeded his adoptive father, tiberius. after a severe illness, he displayed the ruthlessness, extravagance, and megalomania that led to his assassination.
(from dictionary.com)