Friday: Until Next Time

Let me put this right out.  This will be my last post for the next month.  I’ve been ridiculously boring over the last few weeks (I had 241 hits in June, and in July I’ve had less than half that).  This is also becoming a drag every night, and even though this started as kind of a commitment exercise, I think it’s time for a break.  So for the month of August this will be the post at the top, dated July 29th, 2011.  I will be back however, on the first day of school, exactly a month from today.  Then I’ll hopefully have something better for you than the slop I’ve been throwing out for the last few weeks.

So, seeing as this is my last time for a while, I can still end it in style.  And it just so happens that I actually do have a few things to write about today.  First, let’s start with Summer Stage.  Rugrats was awesome, and thank you Anthony for persuading me to go.  I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a comedy or not, but it forced out some laughs I didn’t even know were there.  I don’t remember the show that well, but after a while some of it started to come back.  Love the acting.  Love the singing.  And Anthony, that dog costume was hilarious.  If they ever do another version of Underdog (not likely), you should definitely audition.

Then, kind of as a footnote, after the play my mom and sister dragged me around to Kohls to go shopping.  Still, I finally got a new iPod-to-stereo cable at RadioShack, and I can finally hear out of both my speakers.  Also, Borders is having their clearance sale, so I got Inception.  Finally I get to watch this damn movie (it better be as good as you all told me it was)!

Then, to round it out, my sister went to see Deathly Hallows Part II, (mediocre movie), and with her gone I watched History of the World, Part I.  Mel Brooks is awesome, and I’m not sure why I don’t watch more of his stuff.  I’m serious, even if you’re not a history geek like me, watching a fake Leonardo Da Vinci paint a fake Jesus with Brooks holding a pan behind his head like a halo is a lot funnier than it sounds.  And then there’s Rue de Merde in Paris, and if you don’t know what that last word means shame on you.  Here’s a hint: Google Translate.  Yeah.  Funny right.  Go watch the damn movie.

SONG OF THE DAY: BULLET

 

Now enjoy some Bon Jovi, it’s the last song I’ll be giving you for the next month.  Wow, I just realized that I’m actually going to miss this.  But I’ll be back on August 29th, so just wait until then.  I’ll bet some of you are even hoping that the 28th will last forever.

Adios.

-Chris

Thursday: Ignore this Post ↓

Because I have no idea what to talk about tonight besides a video game, and because I don’t feel like randomizing Wikipedia articles again… that video game it shall be.  So if you have any respect for me whatsoever DO NOT read past this point.  Or really if I know you… DO NOT read past this point.  On third thought, NO ONE read past this point.  There.  I think that solves the problem.

The game in question is actually eleven years old, won about fifty Game of the Year awards back then, and has graphics so old that my system can play it without lagging.  And I know the two people who read this (my aunt and Anthony, if both of them ignored my request) have no idea what the Latin pseudo-proverb meaning ‘God out of the Machine’ is… so I’ll tell you it’s called Deus Ex (FYI, the ‘machine’ part is left out).

The game itself was fun, kind of a combination shooter/RPG that gives you a couple decisions and, eventually, a silenced, completely accurate sniper rifle that can shoot 2700 feet.  But the really good part is the ending… or rather the three of them.  Yeah.  It gives you a choice at the end, which I’ll try to explain without too much backstory.

First choice is to completely wipe out the world’s technology (which coincidentally is the one I chose).  There’s a Chinese scientist named Tracer Tong who tells you how to do this, and influences this ending.  The world is in kind of a high-tech, plague-filled dystopia and apparently the best way to fix it is to wipe it out.  Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Second choice is giving power to the Illuminati (too much backstory, not going into it), and from what I’ve heard not many people choose that.  Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t trust a cult with control of the world.

Third choice is merging with this big AI named Helios, and becoming a sort of nice-guy dictator with the brain of a computer and human awareness.  It sounds nice, but I didn’t feel like that.  Instead I decided to explode a couple nuclear reactors and plunge the world into a Dark Age.

Now that I’ve proven just how geeky I am and pretty much destroyed any shred of self-respect I had left… I’ll leave you with a song.

SONG OF THE DAY: HURRY

 

I don’t think this alleviates my geekiness in any way whatsoever, but it’s a good song.  So if you actually ignored my warning and went this far… this is all I can reward you with.  Goodnight!

Wednesday: Technically, it’s a Ferret

That, my friends, is the best line from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which you can see here in stunningly low quality:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-5v3uTjY9E

Or you can just do what I did and buy it at Target for nine bucks.  Your choice.  So anyway, nothing big really happened today, so I don’t really have a subject for tonight at all.  So let’s try a stream of consciousness (warning, this might get either very boring, offensive, or both).

So of that’s technically a ferret, what is it actually?  Is there a difference between what’s technical and what’s actual, or are they both the same and do people just think they sound more believable when they say ‘technical?’  I mean really, what is the point with technicalities anyway.  The only place where technicalities actually matter are in court… which really is false in itself.  If you have a jury, and someone has evidence that can’t be shown because of a technicality, do you really think those 12 people are going to completely ignore that piece of possible damning evidence?  Sometimes people act like other people are machines, saying ‘technically’ this and ‘technically’ that.  Well technically, technically has no bearing on the actual world.  Well technically, that gunshot didn’t kill him.  The fall from the roof did.  Well yeah, no duh.  You’re still going to prison for murder my friend.  Technically I didn’t take your yogurt from the fridge, my hand did.  That’s funny, because right now there’s a nice big glob of yogurt making its way down your shirt.  I don’t think your hand put it there.  Technically, it’s a ferret.  Really, because last time I looked that was a blond kid in a cloak.

Ok.  I’m done.  That was kind of weird, just typing whatever comes to mind.  I don’t know how I got from ferrets to yogurt and back to ferrets, while passing juries along the way.  I’m sorry if that was boring, but it shouldn’t have been offensive (unless you’re either a criminal or a glob of yogurt), and I think it’s time for the song.

SONG OF THE DAY: HOTEL CALIFORNIA

 

This is one of the classics, and I think is on some lists as one of the greatest classic rock songs of all time.  I like it.  I don’t see why you shouldn’t, unless you’re Anthony and listen to a band that’s really just a bunch of high-voiced geeky guys with too much time on their hands.

Tuesday: Identity Rehashed

You’ll remember about a month or two ago, if you were reading this back then, that I read The Bourne Identity.  Since then I’ve been looking for the movie and I finally managed to find it on a channel that we have.  Now, normally when a movie is nothing like the book, and you like the book, the movie becomes pretty unenjoyable.  This was the exception to that rule.  There shouldn’t even be that text that says ‘based on the novel by Robert Ludlum’, because really the only thing the same is the name of the central character.  Everything else is completely new.  The story is completely different.  And I actually loved it almost as much as the book.  I mean, that was one of the deepest and best action movies I’ve seen in a long time.  The new story worked almost better than the old one, and the new version of Jason Bourne is almost as good as the actual one.  All in all, great movie.

Now that I’ve bored you to death with a review on a nine year old movie… I really don’t have much else to say.  It’s summer.  This is a free week.  That means I sleep to twelve-thirty, eat snacks for the day, watch a movie, read a book, and play video games.  Nothing really interesting happens on these days… which doesn’t exactly make me want school to start again but makes me think that once it comes I won’t be waiting for summer to return.

SONG OF THE DAY: COME SAIL AWAY

 

I saw this song on some websites list of ‘Top Rock Songs that Secretly Suck’, and that is so far from the truth.  Sure, I have no idea what it means.  But pretty everyone knows the song, and can sing the chorus with varying degrees of success.  And now goodnight.  See you tomorrow, which will, guaranteed, be another boring, boring day.

Monday: Late Night Again

No song tonight, really because I just want to get this over with so that I can do the stuff I want to do tonight.  That stuff?  Start writing a new book (Blur the Lines is not done, I’m still going to work on it from time to time, but I’m taking a break), and finish reviewing random movies and video games on Metacritic.  Yeah.  I’m a geek, I know, but it’s still fun to write no matter what it is I’m writing.

Now for what happened today.  I woke up at about twelve-thirty in the afternoon to the news that my uncle and his girlfriend now have a baby girl.  Luciana Lombardo, welcome to the family.

Then, tonight I volunteered at Primos Library for their Games of the World night, most of which had some element of checkers in it.  My game was kind of an African version of checkers, called Yoté.  Which, because of its age, makes checkers an American version of Yoté.  It was a fun night, basically me and Hope hanging out and teaching little kids how to play games we didn’t know how to play.  By the end my mouth was aching from laughing so hard, and hey it looks good for college doesn’t it?

SONG OF THE DAY: PAPERBACK WRITER

 

This is, in my opinion, the greatest Beatles song ever and for some reason is overshadowed by all of their other, more popular songs.  The tune is intoxicating and every time I, for some reason, find myself singing along.  Now that’s all for tonight, I have things to do other than writing an arrogant blog that one person in the entire world reads.

Sunday: Quickly Now

I have about twenty-three minutes before my midnight deadline, which is annoying because I’m actually doing things I enjoy right now and this (not for the first time) is getting in the way.  But I made a deal (with myself, but still a deal), and I’m not going to break it.  So now comes a really quick post about the boring things I’ve done today.

First and foremost was work, where I read through about a hundred and fifty pages of Jane Eyre.  It’s actually shaping up to be a decent novel… for a classic.  It’s not what you would expect.  The wordiness is actually pretty good, and the characters themselves aren’t the ones you’d usually expect.  I think this is one classic I may actually end up enjoying.

Then, once that was out of the way, I fixed all of my computer problems (which thankfully did not involve a reformat), and watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean.  Johnny Depp never ceases to amaze me, and Geoffrey Rush is awesome.  I think Orlando Bloom is there for looks, but he’s a decent actor in himself.  And Keira Knightly is actually a pretty good actress, though the character is more than cheesy.  Actually, the entire movie is completely and utterly full of cheese… but sometimes that just works.  And here it makes one of the most spontaneously funny movies I’ve seen in a long time.  Really, only The Hangover is more spontaneously funny than Curse of the Black Pearl.

SONG OF THE DAY: JUST BREATHE

 

Anthony wanted songs back, so I’ll give you songs back.  This is a slow, acoustic Pearl Jam tune from Backspacer, and it’s pretty deep if you take the time to listen.  Now this has taken approximately eighteen minutes… so before it wastes any more of my time I will say goodnight.

Saturday: One More Day

One more day of getting up at 6:30 for work before my week (almost) completely free of all obligations.  Of course, this week is somehow shaping up to be a bit less enjoyable than I had hoped (more tech problems), but I need some time to finish Jane Eyre and From the Earth to the Moon… and then do their corresponding packets.  The good part is that this year’s vacation is (finally) planned and we’re going back to Mexico for an even longer time than we were there last year.  Somehow I always go into summer thinking it’s going to be this awesome, relaxing getaway from reality.  Then vacation becomes a relief when we get to it because summer turns out to be almost as stressful (at times) as the school year.  But hey, this is still a free week… so for the majority (after I’ve fixed my tech and read the books) will be spent doing whatever the hell I want.  And for some reason it feels really good to say that.

Now to the serious part of this post: Yesterday, you probably heard, there was a massacre in Norway by a singular lunatic on an enclosed island.  It sounds really emotionless when I put it like that, but really this affected me a lot more than things normally do.  Maybe it was because all of the victims weren’t even in their twenties, that this was such a carefully and coldly planned attack, or maybe it was almost completely political.  I’m usually in the habit of giving information, so that’s what I’ll do here.  This lunatic, whose name I can’t remember, planted a car bomb in Oslo to create a diversion.  That blast alone killed seven people, and while the police and counterterrorism units were looking for Al-Qaeda cells or other bombs, no one was watching as a nondescript Norwegian cop made his way to an island where the children of the country’s ruling party lived.  Once there he directed the scared masses into a main house, and opened fire with a machine gun.

This seems just crazy to me in its every aspect.  This plot was planned and executed in a manner almost militaristic.  And this guy was not an Al-Qaeda member, or a military veteran.  He was a white, Christian, far-right-winger from Oslo who was seemingly so overcome with conspiracy theories that he felt the need to kill scores of innocent kids.  Really there is no way to describe it at all… so I’m going to stop trying.  Formulate your own evaluations, make your own opinions.  I’m saying goodnight.

Friday: Summer Reading Blues

For some reason I’ve completely fallen in love with Paperback Writer.  You know, the Beatles song?  Don’t pretend you’ve never heard it or been entranced by its catchiness.  If I hadn’t said no more songs for the rest of the summer… you guess what would be today’s song.  But anyway, no one wants to hear that so I’ll move on.

This is the worst thing school ever does to us.  Summer reading is the most hated assignment I’ve ever had, and I like reading!  This year is the worst too… I’m thirty pages into the unabridged edition of Jane Eyre and I’m not sure how I’m supposed to finish this massive book in two weeks.  Then I have to read From the Earth to the Moon… which I can probably renew for the rest of the summer because the librarians got me an edition no one knows about.  And I like Jules Verne… the stories at least.  He’s one of the greatest sci-fi (though we may not think that now) writers ever.  The only problem is that his writing is so suffocating that I really can’t read his books for more than ten minutes at a time.  At least they’re short…

The real torture though is that for the first time in a month I have a couple books I REALLY want to read… and this is keeping me away.  I have 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 for the next couple of weeks, and I’m really looking forward to them… but I can’t.  And then today at the Borders at Springfield Mall I found this cool leather-bound collection of all the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, which people have continuously told me that I’d love… but I can’t read them either!  On top of those I have a book club book about suicide (Thirteen Reasons Why), which is looking pretty appealing too.  So fuck you Summer reading!  I will never use Sparknotes, but I envy the people without a conscience who do!

Thursday: … … Really…? That’s it…? …

As everyone with a computer and half an index finger knows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 broke about five box office records in its first three days on-screen, leading the way to a 169.2 million dollar total.  That’s three days.  In the USA only.  Around the world, chalk up another 250 – 300 million.  At the midnight premieres they gave out 3D glasses shaped like Harry’s.  Then fanboys and fangirls everywhere oohed and aahed at every pretty flashing light and squealed at every vacant sigh.  When it was over, they all went of facebook and proclaimed it the greatest work of acting, directing, cinema, in the history of movies.  It was the best reviewed, (probably) highest-grossing, and apparently most well like movie of the series.

In other words, it completely, totally, unequivocally average in every possible way.

You heard me.  How about I use a few other words?  Generic.  Ordinary.  Normal.  Boring.  Rushed.  Abrupt.  Jolting.  That enough for you?  Are you confused?  I’m sure you are.  Can everyone just lift the veil of ‘ oh my fucking god it’s ending…??!’ for a moment and watch that movie without the fanboy / fangirl bias?  It was a sloppy mess created by the series’ worst director by far.  Apparently David Yates thinks he can do whatever he wants without regard to the source material whatsoever.  And that would be okay if his alterations were any good.  My favorite scene from Part I was one of his creations: when Harry and Hermoine were dancing alone in the tent.  But for this he became the anti-Midas.  Everything he touched rusted and broke.  The best thing about this movie was Alan Rickman’s performance, which was the only thing Oscar-worthy about this piece of nondescript fluff; he story was rushed and the producing was flawed.

Part I put so much on the table.  It gave this movie an incredible head start, a solider-than-concrete beginning, and the potential to end the series with an awesome bang.  Instead, Part II took Part I’s magic and wasted it in the first five lackadaisical minutes.  Everyone had an open mouth at the end.  Most were screaming praises.  The ones who actually watched the movie were saying, “this is it…?”  One thing’s for sure, possibly the greatest literary and cinematic franchise of all time just whimpered over the finish line.  Disappointing.  That’s really the only word for this slapdash movie.  Disappointing.

Wednesday: Lesson Learned

I love racing games.  So much that when they’re on sale, I tend to snap them up.  Now twenty-three bucks later I realized something… even if your computer is above the minimum and pretty close to the recommended specs… it’s not going to run smoothly.  It’s not going to run smoothly unless you have some cyborg processor that costs a thousand dollars by itself to take care of the frame-rates and motion blur and shadows and all that crap.  So lesson learned.  Do not buy any racing games less than three years old.  So, in short, do not buy any more racing games.  Until at least you sell a book and you can afford an i5.

Now today in Science, we built walls out of LEGOs and watched the teacher throw a wiffleball and a little steel ball at them in succession.  The wiffleball just knocked them over.  The steel ball actually made them explode.  I’m not kidding.  Pieces of that wall ended up about ten feet away, along with the LEGO monkey I put on top of it.  It was hilarious… and all for the good of kids learning about inertia right?  Then of course we have to go to another level and put a LEGO grandma in a little car and send her zooming down a ramp towards a pile of books.  Needless to say, grandma did not end the ride inside the car.  So that was part kids learning about inertia, part public service announcement (wear your seatbelts people), but mostly, mostly just a hell of a lot of fun.

Now, as this is summer, I have nothing more exciting to write about.  All I have is a question.  Does anyone know what I’m talking about when I ask if you remember those kids that move to your school about halfway through the year, and then disappear about a month later?  I’m writing a story about a kid like that right now… and I was wondering if you would call them Ghosts.  (Because, that’s the title).  Other than that, I’m done.  Adios folks.

Tuesday: Square One

Tonight’s post is going to be pretty short; I might even break my rule of at least a page on my writer program.  Let’s just say I have some work to do tonight, work that’s a lot more important than throwing as much self-pity onto the Internet as I possibly can.  Let’s just say I’m back to square one… and leave it at that.

Now, there was really one interesting thing that happened this morning.  Science in the Summer 2011 went into Day 2, and we had to help the kids build three different kinds of pulleys,  Sound easy?  You try piecing together plastic parts with screws that don’t fit AND try keeping a string on a wheel that that string really does not want to hold on to.  Still sound easy?  Well, maybe it was… but it fell apart enough times for me to know that’s a lie.  Anyway that still wasn’t the hardest part, that would have been cleanup.  First, four tables had to be flipped and moved.  That alone almost fractured my spine.  Then we have these really comfortable theater-type chairs that we’d set out… with the downside of each weighing about twenty tons.  Seriously, those things have to be made out of cast-iron or granite… that’s how heavy they are.  And then it’s even worse when one of them gets stuck in a rat trap, and then your foot gets stuck in a rat trap, and then your face-

That was a joke, in case you were wondering.  The face part at least.  Anyway as I’m starting the new no-song-till-school tradition I guess I’ll be seeing you around.  Still… let’s leave with one more.

FINAL SONG OF THE DAY: SQUARE ONE

 

Au revoir silent readers.

Monday: Science and Libraries

More daily recaps for you people, I think you like them better than the other junk I’ve been spewing out over the last few weeks.  Just hang in there… you only have six more weeks until school begins and I have actually funny and interesting recaps to share… so in other words stop being greedy and wait.  I’m not quite that interesting.

Now this morning I began one of two weeks helping with Science in the Summer, this one at Primos Library.  Our teacher is this awesome guy named Jason who looks sort of like Novak Djokovic.  I’m serious.  That was the first thing I thought… wow, this guy looks like Novak Djokovic.  Yet ironically he didn’t seem that big of a sports fan, but that’s fine.  At least we weren’t filling test tubes and cups with oil… and subsequently spending hours cleaning them out like last year.  This time it was just making levers out of LEGOs and having people lift a bucket of bricks with two fingers.  Most of the time it was even pretty funny.

The other interesting thing that happened today was book club where we discussed Little Brother (see a post about two-and-a-half weeks ago).  It could have been better, though it was pretty good as it was.  If Anthony had been there though… I don’t know what kind of arguments (excuse me, debates) would have been sparked.  There would have been fireworks though.  Then of course we need to set up for Science in the Summer tomorrow morning… and I almost fell over twice and felt like a total wimp trying to unfold and refold tables.  Apparently it’s not that I can’t be good at everything, it’s that I can’t be good at anything.  And now that I’ve expressed enough self-pity for one night, it’s time for a song which I have not chosen yet.

SONG OF THE DAY: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

 

You know, I just typed in ‘Greatest Song Ever’ into the YouTube search box, and this was the first result.  So here’s your song, which probably is the greatest song ever.  And I think I’m going to stop doing songs, at least until school starts again.  Then I’ll start fresh… because I’m actually starting to run out.  Goodnight people, and thanks for listening.  However many of you there are out there.

Sunday: And Now, We Wait…

This is hearkening back to the good-old waiting-for-the-next-Harry-Potter book days, and it’s probably been about six hours since I beat Half LIfe 2: Episode 2.  Now I promised Anthony I wouldn’t talk about video games on here again, even though it probably makes up the bulk of what I do during the summer (that and volunteer), so I’ll leave with saying that waiting has never been easy.  At least I didn’t get into this four years ago… now that must be real torture.

Alright, as for anything else interesting I did today… there is absolutely nothing.  But, instead of cut this blog post incredibly short (I’ll never go less than a page on my Writer program), I’m going to go click ‘random’ on Wikipedia and talk about the first interesting page I find for the rest of the post.

Actually, I just randomed onto an article about a Japanese soccer player.  That reminds me, all of you who were dropped at birth and believe America will ever recognize soccer as a sport… well… keep dreaming.  The minority of Americans who can watch a full game of soccer without changing the channel were probably either born somewhere else or are the .000001 percent of Americans not afflicted with ADD.  I’m serious, ADD is synonymous with American.  But that’s not he point.  The point is that the majority of American football fans like it because it’s grinding and smash-mouth.  They can’t stand the fifty faked injuries though the course of a soccer game where the person will flop on the ground after behind tapped on the chin.  Also… has anyone realized that the most unsatisfying ending to a game is a tie?  Even a loss is more satisfying… at least you know that the other team was better.  Ties are boring.  This is why Americans will watch World Cup soccer, where they have some kind of a shootout in the event of a tie.  Now just a personal problem… what’s with the shirt thing guys?  Why do you have to rip your jerseys off every time you score a goal?  I mean seriously, the reason kids here don’t watch soccer is that their parents don’t want them watching shirtless men run around a field.  (That was internet sarcasm people).  Now I think I’ve made my point, and burned fifteen minutes, so let us post a song and send you on your way.

SONG OF THE DAY: HALF LIFE 2 THEME

 

What?  Did I just slip some more video game in there?  Well actually this is a pretty awesome theme song with a really catchy piano line, so yeah.  Why don’t you listen to it?  Adios friends.  And goodnight Freeman.

Saturday: Animalistic

I went to the Zoo tonight for their members-only thing where you get this kind of in-depth talk about a bunch of different animals.  For all of you rolling your eyes right now, it’s actually pretty fun.  Last time we met a Chinchilla (which are ridiculously cute), and got to pet it for a few minutes.  This time we saw a couple awesome owls, a hawk, and a raven named Poe.  Which, now that I think about it, I’ve been meaning to put a raven in a story for a long time.  It probably won’t be named Poe… but still at least it helped me remember.

Also we got to see a bunch of kangaroos, which never lose their charm.  I’m serious, these animals are just so cool that nothing can ever make them boring.  They act like my dog (rolling around in the dirt), are as adorable as my dog (from an animal standpoint), and hello… they’re Australian.  The only thing I like more from Australia is Outback Steakhouse.  If you happen to be Australian… sorry if I just offended you.  If you’re Australian and happen to be named Julian Assange, please don’t hack my computer.

The third and final thing we saw were a brother-sister pair of golden lion tamarins, which are exactly what they sound like.  They’re these tiny little monkeys (for want of a better word), colored gold and with a kind of lionish mane.  They also have these really long tails which are probably twice the length of their body, and can hang from them.  These two are apparently fearless as well, and travel to the bear exhibits when they’re let out of their exhibit.

Now that I’ve bored you to hell with a bunch of animal stories, here’s a song.

SONG OF THE DAY: ATTENTION

 

This may be what I wish some people would give me sometime.  Goodnight people, and I hope I’m not being as boring as I was a couple of days ago!

Friday: Finally… Something Normal

I’m done with countdowns, reviews, segments, serious discussions… at least for today.  Thank god too… I think I drove away everyone who was reading this piece of junk!  I had almost 250 hits in June, in July I only have about 40.  Now that’ll pick up again when school starts, and I’m almost glad that I can do this in peace.  Really, my stuff during the summer is probably so boring that I wouldn’t be able to stay awake reading it.  So for today, let’s just do a good old daily recap for nostalgia (and everyone else)’s sake.

We, that is to say my sister, my mom, and I started the day at the last morning of her Summer Stage Apprentice program where I finally met the infamous Mr. Marty (I thought he was hilarious though), and had to jump awkwardly around for twenty minutes in the dancing portion.  Needless to say, I’ll just leave the performing to the people who are actually talented.

After that I returned to the writing class I was at last week (long story), for the end-of-class open house.  It was actually satisfying to hear people laugh at a script I (mostly) wrote, and the three guys performing it did a great job.  It was perfect.  Maybe I’ll screen-write sometime… it’s a different kind of writing but it’s still fun in it’s special way.

The last thing of any significance today was our errand to Kohl’s… which I know shouldn’t have been significant but was.  Why?  I found an awesome t-shirt with the head of Perry the Platypus wearing a red baseball cap that says ‘PLAT’.  It is the best t-shirt I have ever seen.  I think I’m wearing that to the library next Monday, just to annoy Anthony.

SONG OF THE DAY: UPRISING

 

I didn’t have a song.  And no one reads this.  So who cares if I post one that everyone in the world knows?  Goodnight my nonexistent readers.  And if you hear me screaming about something called Zombie Chopper in my sleep… don’t ask.

Thursday: Random Countdown (#2)

I don’t have time to think of something to write about tonight, so instead of wracking my brains I’m going to take the easy way out and give another endlessly boring random countdown.  This random countdown is going from seven to one, of MY FAVORITE dystopian (read yesterday’s post) works.  This list will have one video game, two movies, and four books.  And please, I know no one reads this but don’t get bent out of shape because 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 aren’t here… this is my list.  These are not the best.  Just MY best.  Now… let’s begin.

7: Under the Dome: Stephen King is first and foremost a horror writer, and this is first and foremost a horror book.  But Dome showcases a perfect setting for a dystopia, where a town is cut off from the world and set under the rule of a cunning and tyrannical leader.  It easily takes Number 7.

6: The Book of Eli: I realize I was singing its praises yesterday, but I’m not done.  The world this movie painted was on par with any dystopian work I’ve ever seen… and the desolation really gets to you after a while.  The general feeling of a dystopian world is of an oppressive, government controlled utopia.  This is the exact opposite: a barren wasteland and a corrupted town.  It’s different, which is why it finds a place at Number 6.

5: Mortal Engines: This is a young adult book series by Philip Reeve in a world where cities move across the continents.  Called traction cities, these behemoths traverse the Earth throughout the four books destroyed and eating each other for fuel.  The world both a combination of Eli and your regular dystopia, and the characters definitely stick with you.  It definitely deserves Number 6.

4: Star Wars: Episode V: Why did I pick Empire Strikes Back?  Because Empire Strikes back is probably the best example of a dystopia the series has.  No one can deny that this is one of the greatest series of all time… and in my mind it’s a perfect dystopia.  Oppressive government.  Iconic antagonist.  Equally iconic protagonists.  What more does it need?

3: Little Brother: This is a book written by Cory Doctorow, about what would probably happen after a terrorist attack on San Francisco.  After Marcus, a more than technologically-savvy teenager is kidnapped and interrogated by the overpowering Department of Homeland Security… he fights back by hacking them with a network of fictional Xboxes.  You may be wondering why this is before Eli, Star Wars, and Engines… it’s because it also has amazingly deep underlying themes of love, power, and what living in the USA really means.  I almost feel bad that this isn’t higher… but there is literally no competition for the top two.

2: Half Life 2: Here’s the video game I promised.  Now, if I happen to be a successful author in twenty years and made this list again, most of my counterparts would scoff at a video game being placed over literature.  I say, why not?  The storyline of the entire Half Life series is extremely complex, more so than most books even, and extremely entertaining.  The world of City 17 is easily a dystopia, and the Combine is almost synonymous with Big Brother.  From that perspective people would say that it’s just a remake of 1984… but some remakes can actually be better than the original.  All I know is that it’s been a lot of fun playing as Gordon Freeman, and there’s only one dystopia that I could possibly hold over this.

1: The Hunger Games: Most of you knew this was coming, but this is above and beyond the most amazingly crafted dystopian story I’ve ever read.  The world is exquisitely made and utterly haunting, but for such an incredible story it’s almost completely character driven.  Not only that, but it’s easily the deepest and darkest ‘children’s’ book I’ve ever read… Harry Potter’s true successor in every way.  Suzanne Collins’s father was a Vietnam vet, and as a kid he would take her to war memorials and explain in vivid detail what war was really like.  This amazing series was the result of that; it’s an image of the true aspect of war and the only Number 1 I could ever have.

SONG OF THE DAY: UNDISCLOSED DESIRES

 

Let’s finish with some Muse, from an album aptly named The Resistance.  Goodnight people, and enjoy the midnight premieres.

And by the way, I HAVE read 1984.

Wednesday: Return to Dystopia

Dystopia is no doubt one of the most overused genres in books (Hunger Games, Mortal Engines, Inheritance Cycle), movies (Star Wars), and even video games (Half Life, Fallout), but you can never have too much of a great thing.  It’s my genre of choice, writing-wise, and almost all of the good stuff I’ve ever concocted fits somewhere into the dystopian spectrum.  So it’s no surprise that I love almost every dystopian thing that comes along, but this one was special.

From all the average reviews I assumed The Book of Eli was your average post-apocalyptic film… and I could not have been more wrong.  I don’t watch that many movies, and I can’t remember the last Denzel one I saw… but if this is one of his worst (as the critics say) I’d wonder what he’s like at his best.  Eli is a terrific character, the perfect evangelical knife-fighting nomad, and easily one of the best dystopian heroes I’ve ever seen.  Gary Oldman is just and awesome actor, and his character is utterly flawless in every way.  Also, I didn’t even know Mila Kunis was in this when I started it, but by the time it was over I was glad she was.  Each character was amazing in their own right, and together they make a masterpiece.

Even with the great characters… I almost loved the world itself more.  Filmed in New Mexico and made to look like a dark Death Valley, the cinematography is incredible and goes with the storyline perfectly.  It’s an amazing piece of work, and easily ranks up there as one of my favorite post-apocalyptic / dystopian worlds.

Then of course comes the story itself, which I loved from start to finish.  I know really the main focal point for the criticism was the final twist… but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.  In my mind, it was pretty ingenious.  The whole thing was superbly told, superbly acted, and surrounded with a superb world and a superb soundtrack.  So you can easily guess the adjective I’d use to describe it.

SONG OF THE DAY: ROCKET MAN

 

You’ve all heard this before… but I was at a loss and had no other songs.  So with ten minutes to midnight I say goodnight… and hello to the penultimate (look it up) day to Harry Potter 8.

Tuesday: Random Countdown (#1)

Seeing as this is a boring summer day with nothing to write about (besides the just-got-hit-with-a-pipe-wrench ache my mouth is still surviving after having a bunch of new stuff squashed onto my braces yesterday), I’ll try to start another recurring gag if you will.  This one is pretty predictable, a top five countdown, but I’m going to try and make it as humorous as possible.  Ever seen Jim Rome is Burning?  That’s what I’m shooting for.  So without further ado, the top five most useless things on the internet.

5: Email Spammers: Seriously, do these things ever work?  I mean, just wondering if there are people dumb enough to click the pretty link that says “YoU JUst WoN 5,000,000,000,000 $$$ iN mALAysIAn EMaiL LotTeRy.”  Either that spammer had just had a full night at the bar, or their caps lock button is seriously FUBAR.  My other favorite is FIN-CANADEN-MEDZ-SOLD-4-CHEEP-PRICE… it’s so funny to see how far people go to beat spam filters.  And even funnier when they (always) fail.

4: Farmville: What do you people see in this game?  They are imaginary animals on an imaginary farm that you spend hours and hours perfecting… are you Facebook slaves?  Is that it?  Or do they pay you to waste more time than is humanly possible playing a game that takes the dumbest aspects of a video game and farm life and combining them into an apparently nicotine-laced Facebook app.

3: Twitter.  Tell me, what is so special about twitter?  It’s like the internet’s saloon… you spit out ten word sentences that usually make no sense and are followed by people you don’t even know.  It’s also destroyed any chance of anyone saying anything to anyone’s face anymore… when two people have a problem they duke it out over twitter.  In 140 characters or less.  Sorry, but that's not a fight.  It’s a shortened rap battle where the winner is probably also the dumbest in the group.

2: MySpace: It’s a useless conglomerate of servers that does nothing but take up actual space and give internet predators a little more maneuverability than Facebook.  The world would probably be better if someone just accidentally poured some gasoline on its computers and dropped their cigarette.  Whoops…

1: FoxNews Bing: Microsoft should stop wasting their time on a search engine that is to Google exactly what MySpace is to Facebook and spend their time on spitting out something that doesn’t completely ruin any progress the technological world has ever made.  Google was there first.'

No song today, as I’m about twenty seconds from midnight.  Goodnight people.  See you all (figuratively) tomorrow.

Monday: Countdown

I know Deathly Hallows II doesn’t come out for another four days… but being a pottermaniac like almost everyone else I know (thanks for being a spoil-sport Eli), I have to start a little early.  Really, after what I think is about ten years for me, I still can’t believe it’s all going to end.  I guess it truly ended in ‘07 when Book 7 was published… but the movies have always been just as much a part of the series as the books (which most movies tend not to be).  They have to count.  So in four days it all ends… as those posters rightly say.  Now I think I’m going to be nostalgic tonight and make all of you uncomfortable (and probably sound extremely self-centered)… or you can stop reading now and save yourselves the pain.

My first memory of Harry Potter?  Refusing to read the first book when I got it for what was probably my fifth or sixth birthday.  I didn’t read Sorcerer’s Stone for four months… and really the only reason why I ended up reading it was probably because I got Chamber of Secrets for Christmas.  Then, when I started… I never looked back.  The funniest part of the whole thing (and some of you might know this already), was that I used to get really chapped lips back then.  So the thing, first and foremost, that I associate with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is coconut-flavored lip balm.  Why would I lie about something like that?

Then came Azkaban, my unconditional favorite… just because it was so different from the rest of the series.  Voldemort does not make an appearance.  The Marauder’s Map is introduced.  And the Dementors are some of the greatest antagonists I’ve ever ‘seen’.  Who could forget Lupin either… he’s easily my favorite character in the entire series.

Order of the Phoenix was the first one I had to wait for, and that was the only one I actually bought at midnight.  I remember bringing a flashlight in the car so I could read it on the way home… and my dad still remembers it too.  Order of the Phoenix stands out for a few reasons.  One, it was my least favorite of the series (at least at the first readthrough).  Two, it was the only book I ever read ahead in.  I was about halfway through and so frustrated about how slow it was that I read the last chapter.  Maybe that’s another reason I didn’t like it…

Half-Blood Prince only has one real memory attached to it… that was me sitting in a shopping cart in Home Depot the morning I got it and reading the chapter where Snape makes the vow.  Oddly enough, after I finished I not only said Snape was innocent (spoiler alert), but I even called that Dumbeldore had asked him to kill him.  See Anthony, I even predicted stuff back then.

Deathly Hallows was the quickest one I finished, clocking in at roughly eight hours.  From what I remember, I sat on the living room floor through the entire day reading that book from start to finish.  I think I even laughed out loud at the profanity… and as I always say some profanity always makes a book better.  It comes in second on the favorites list to Azkaban, in fact it comes in second on every list to Azkaban.  It was almost as clever.  Almost as witty.  Almost as emotional.  And it was the best finish to a series I’ve ever read.

SONG OF THE DAY: WHEN WE WERE BEAUTIFUL

 

Great Bon Jovi song, which I have no time to go into because I have three minutes until the midnight deadline.  So adios my friends, thanks for listening to my rambling… and see you tomorrow.  Same time.  Same place.  As always.

Sunday: In All Seriousness… (#1)

I had no idea what to write about today until about ten minutes ago.  Absolutely no idea.  That was, until I read the beginning of a dark comedy about suicide on YWS which gave me my starting point.  I even have a new segment now, so you may see this again in a week or two.  So in all seriousness…

Suicide is not cool.  It’s not being brave.  It’s not anything that the suicidal justify it to be.  I knew someone who committed suicide, and I know more than one person who has thought seriously about / attempted it.  I realize how serious it is.  And I’ve never thought about it as more than an observer… and I’m sorry if if I offend anyone with what I’m about to say.  But then again, that has never really been my problem has it?

In light of everything I just said about suicide… it should not be such a taboo subject.  So many things are taboo in the world (more then one of which is showcased daily on MTV), that suddenly things become so heavy that no one can talk about them.  They become the invisible elephant in the room.  Everyone feels them there.  Everyone experiences the effects.  Everyone sees the commercials for antidepressants.  But if someone says anything close to ‘kill himself’ in a sentence, people become suddenly tense and alert and stare at that person with disapproving looks.  No, I take that back.  They stare at that person with almost scared looks.  I’ve been in that position before.  It’s uncomfortable.  I made a joke, admittedly in a moment of arrogance, and afterward I did feel bad for it.  And now that I look back… why did I have to feel bad for making a joke?  In all seriousness… suicide is serious.  But not talking about it just entrenches the problem deeper in society.  If things like that are never talked about, how will anyone who actually is considering suicide know where to turn?  Who can you talk to in a place where people won’t even mention the word?

It all comes down to this.  People want to believe that the world is a perfect place, that every teenager’s life is full of daisies.  Nothing sums that up better than a review I read a while ago about a certain show denounced by parents’ groups across the country.  You’ve heard if it.  It’s called Skins.  The reason it hasn’t been renewed for a second season is because those aforementioned groups thought it too taboo for their kids to watch.  Now let me ask… what problem are they solving?  In all seriousness… that show is more truthful to an American teenager’s life than anything on their approved list of channels (Disney and et cetera).  The raw truth is there.  Teenagers use drugs.  Teenagers have sex.  Teenagers commit suicide.  It’s not a rare occurrence, and ignoring that just intensifies the problem.

In all seriousness… suicide is serious.  But if it weren’t placed under a 1984-esque ban, maybe there would be less of it in the world.  That’s my talk for the night.  Take it or leave it.

SONG OF THE DAY: WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME

 

Undoubtedly one of the greates U2 songs of all time… and I think it fits the theme doesn’t it.  Goodnight and remember.  Silence is not golden.  Silence is terrible.

Saturday: Is There Anything…

…that Cliff Lee can’t do?  He just hit a homerun.  He hit a homerun off of a decent pitcher.  He hit a homerun off of a pitcher that completely shut down the rest of the Phillies team.  They say pitching wins game… but today the pitching was the entire offense too!  And then, being the Phils, they stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th and ended up losing four-to-one.  That is Philadelphia sports in a nutshell.

Today was a good day though.  I slept until ten, which was nice after the power outage kept me up late last night.  then, about three hours later, we went to a barbecue at my uncle’s girlfriend’s house.  There was a pool, so some swimming was done.  My sister tried to get me to front flip off of the diving board… twice.  And I belly-flopped (painfully)… twice.  Their dogs loved me for the same reason all dogs seem to love me.  What is that reason?  I have no idea.  Their cat was almost more adorable than the dogs, this really little fluffy guy with huge eyes with that kind of squashed in face.  His name was Enzo (which is an awesome name), and he actually let me hold him for a little while without trying to claw me.  The food was good.  They had Dr. Pepper, so I had no problem with the drinks.  And my aunt (who reads this) promised that we could drive to Harry Potter in her Mustang if I didn’t hide her cigarettes (which my sister and I did once).  As I said.  Good day.

SONG OF THE DAY: SWEET CHILD O’ MINE

 

I know you’ve all heard this before, but really this has got to be one of my all-time favorites.  This is the only song when I shuffle my iPod that I unconditionally listen to every time.  Now goodnight people, because I have more important things to write tonight.

Friday: Power Down

This will probably be posted not on Friday night but in the early hours of Saturday morning, because that damn thunderstorm in the afternoon knocked out our apparently very fragile power grid.  I’m writing this on offline Windows Live at about 10:12 Friday night, and the one unencrypted internet connection on my street is fading in and out too quickly for me to catch it.  So PECO, get back on task.  You’re estimate passed thirteen minutes ago, and we’re expecting power.  I really don’t want to have to fall asleep in an eighty-degree rainforest of a room… so speed it up a bit!

Power outages aren’t the rarest occurrence for us though, they happen two or three times a year.  Most of the time it’s during the night and it doesn’t last that long… usually the grid is back before I’m awake.  If they’re in the winter I usually don’t mind them… it gives you a little time to contemplate how much you depend on electricity while you warm up under a bunch of cozy blankets.  However in the summer there’s really no way to escape the heat short of dunking yourself in a crate of ice… which I’m not desperate enough to do.  Then when the internet goes out-

Wait… connection!  I have connection!  I finally found the network!  Alright, I’m going to cut this post short because I’m not sure how much longer I have.  Now quickly I’m going to find a song… and it’s gone again.  Goddammit!

Alright, let’s keep going with that train of thought.  I don’t mind the dependence on technology; I’ve argued for it time and time again.  If you don’t want that dependence which comes with new technologies, you can go back to the 1700s when there was no electricity.  Just… remember that the average lifespan back then was about thirty years.  And don’t forget to pack some light clothes, no air-conditioning.  See what mean?  Technology does make everything a little sweeter… and as with all new things a dependence develops.  Today the same amount of people as those who built the pyramids thousands of years ago by hand would be hard pressed to even build a fraction because they’re dependent of tools and cranes and scaffolds and everything else that goes into construction.  It’s part of human nature.  We adapt easily.  Adapting back… not so easy.

Now that’s it for me tonight (at precisely 10:30), so I’ll say goodnight to you and wait for a moment of connectivity to send this out.  I should get one at some point hopefully before my battery runs out…

Thursday: I Never Thought Disney Could Be That Good…

But then again, in the hands of Summer Stage, anything is possible.  They managed to turn Camp Rock 2 (possibly one of the cheesiest Disney movies), into a really fun and awesome musical.  The songs actually sounded great… WITHOUT autotune (which keeps most of those songs afloat in the movie), and you guys just knocked it out of the park.  I think I even laughed more than once or twice… which is a bit more than I was expecting.  And Anthony, keep bouncing.  That’s how I pick you out of the crowd.  You’re the only one who’s actually in the air while everyone is dancing.  Deisy, Masaki, Trelayna, everyone in the group who I can’t name… you guys were great.  And Mel… every time I hear you sing like that it blows me away.  All of you are amazing and I know someday I’m going to be able to brag about knowing you.  (Which is probably more than you’re going to be able to say about me).  Keep it up!

Are you all happy?  I deviated from serious for a day!  This should be cause for celebration!  I mean really, I’m not bogging you down with something really boring today… oh.  I think now I am.  Well, how about I just make this really short and give all the glory to the people who deserve it?

SONG(S) OF THE DAY: ASSORTED TRACKS FROM DRAMA (aka my uncle)

 

So this is pretty long but if you don’t have time just listen to a few minutes.  It’s Trance (music genre, not stage of hypnotism), which is this techno-y dance music, and it’s all made by my Uncle Stephen.  So here’s some free publicity man, though I’m not sure how much publicity posting anything here can get.  I can always try though right?  Goodnight guys, and savor how short this post is.  They won’t all be like that!

Wednesday: The Hate List (#1)

I hate this.  I really hate this.  I really hate having to do three serious posts three nights in a row.  And by that, I mean I apologize to all of you (more like the three of you) who have to suffer through it.  I love it.  It’s easy and I never have to stress over anything.  And I hope (for your sake) that I don’t have to be serious tomorrow night or you all may explode from boredom.

Really this shouldn’t be a really long post, even though I want to make it more of a cover-all to finish the last two days’ posts than have any one specific subject.  So I think I’ll list a few things that I hate, you know, just to make it easier for you.

Hate #1: You know, sorry if I’ve been repetitive, but most of all I really hate when people take freedom of speech as selective.  You cannot select what people are free to say!  That kind of undermines the whole meaning (not to mention the name) of the right.  Hello people, your opinions are not exclusive.  People are allowed to disagree with you.  People are allowed to say what they want to you.  People are allowed to speak violently against what you wish and for what they wish, even if it means jeering at a soldier’s funeral.  They get the reputation for being complete and utter bastards (which they are), but they’re allowed to say it anyway.  Freedom of Speech is absolute, and you have no say in it.  That is literally the one thing you are not free to talk about.

Hate #2:  Alright Republicans, congratulations on cementing your homophobic status in the collective American mind.  You set up a contingency plan for what you apparently think is more catastrophic than the impeding default, the collapsing economy, and the nine percent unemployment rate: gay people serving openly in the military.  All I can say is really??  You’re wasting your time on a repeal of probably the most progressive repeal in the last year?  This is the fucking 21st Century!  We should have gotten over this shit ten goddamned years ago!  Are your delicate moral compasses tingling?  I guarantee you that’s all the people banging on your offices because they’re out of work or the people dying overseas in a war that should have ended years ago… not the gay people in the military who are just as willing to defend this country as their heterosexual counterparts.  Now I know it’s hard for some of you far-right wingers to let go of your profoundly racist and prejudiced roots… but it’s time to let this one go.  Prissy, privileged, heterosexual white men do not rule the world anymore.  They don’t even have the majority in Congress.

Hate #3: This is just something that came up earlier in an argument about Casey Anthony.  This is my opinion in it’s entirety, and this is my most elegant way of putting it.  Capital punishment is politically correct bullshit for killing someone to make a statement.  That’s what North Korea does.  That’s what the Soviet Union did.  That’s what Khomeini did.  That’s what Hitler did.  That is not what the United States of America should do.  You want to kill someone to make a statement… look back to May 2nd.  You killed one of the most hated and radioactive men in the world.  That’s the kind of statement you make by killing, not killing American criminals.  That’s what terrorist and totalitarian nations do.  Last time I checked, we weren’t one of them.  And always, if you want them to suffer, stick them in Gitmo for the rest of their lives.  Then on the off-chance that you convict the wrong person (see Nick Yarris), you haven’t killed an innocent man.  And for god’s sakes… someone go watch The Green Mile.

SONG OF THE DAY: WAITING FOR THE END

 

Great song, and I think it fits.  For those of you who are too lazy to watch, I’ll read my favorite line.  “The hardest part of ending is starting again.”  That’s a little better than Bieber don’t you think?  Now adios muchachos, and I hope I don’t bog you down like this again tomorrow.

Tuesday: Innocent vs. Guilty

Alright, now that Anthony is going to try to match me for daily blogging I think I need to at least try to step my game up a little.  For another week he’s going to have Summer Stage to rant about, and I have little to nothing.  Really, I’ve been surviving the summer on two paragraph filler posts that have pretty much nothing in terms of substance… so I’ll at least try to change that.

Let’s start with something that has gotten unreasonably popular for the last few weeks, the Casey Anthony trial.  I’ll admit, I had no idea what was going on until about five hours ago but since then I’ve read up (somewhat) on the facts and I think I understand what’s going on here.  What I don’t understand is how everyone from everywhere is so convinced that she was guilty that they’re still pleading for her head to roll after she was proven innocent.  Does proven innocent mean anything anymore?

Now forget that.  That was rhetorical.  I think she’s guilty.  Everyone but a certain twelve thinks that she’s guilty.  The only problem is that people are so bloodthirsty that they can’t realize that their opinion is not the final call.  The final call goes to the twelve randomly picked jurors, and in this instance those twelve jurors had a different opinion.  It doesn’t mean that they’re right.  It doesn’t mean that you’re right.  What it does mean is that everyone should stop fucking complaining about something that they don’t know for sure.  Did you see her murder that kid?  With you own eyes?  How about a camera?  I didn’t think so.  So for once actually think before blindly calling for someone to fry for a murder where the evidence seems just a little stark.

If that sounds heartless to you, as I’m sure it probably will, take it this way.  “Better ten guilty men go free than one innocent suffer.”  I believe this just as strongly as the stuff I posted last night, and I really don’t care what examples you throw at me.  In truth, I’d rather see the man who murdered a family member go free than for another to be sentenced to life or death when all that they had done was be in the wrong place and the wrong time.  Maybe you all should think about that next time you go about blindly accusing everyone in sight.

SONG OF THE DAY: LIVIN’ ON THE EDGE

 

First off, all of you chickens get over the fact that this video is weird.  Watch past the first thirty seconds.  It’s an awesome song.  And really, this was written a while ago.  It’s still pretty true.  “If you can judge a wise man by the color of his skin, then mister you’re a better man than I.”  It’d be a better world if some people listened to more Aerosmith.  Goodnight conspirators, and remember… while you’re complaining about the judicial system, appreciate the fact you live in a place where you CAN complain about it. 

Monday: The Definition of Patriotism

This is America, where most of us take our freedom of speech seriously.  Yeah I know a bunch of other countries have it… but how many abuse it like us Americans do?  We’ve redefined the meaning of protest.  I mean, just look at the sixties.  That was America at its finest, where people actually would actively fight for what they believed in.  Now America is a watered down piece of junk whose only claim to fame is the largest military in the world.  Our economy is in shambles.  Our Congress is ninety-nine percent lying snakes (no offense to snakes, I like them), and half of the people still think patriotism means that they should blindly follow their country wherever it takes them.  I went to watch American Idiot today on YouTube, kind of a national-holiday-tradition for me… and one of the commenters really pissed me off.  It first insulted me as a teenager and then said something about watching a song that “criticizes America” on the “most patriotic of holidays.”  Now did I read the First Amendment wrong… or is that kind of what this country was made to be?  Aren’t we not only allowed but encouraged to criticize our government?  Especially when it has turned into a complete cesspool like the kind it is today?

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness”

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

Those are my favorite quotes from the Declaration of Independence, and I’m sorry if they’re a little too heavy for you to understand.  Simply, they say that if the government isn’t working for the people, then the people have the right and the duty to form a government that does work for them as they are the ones whose shoulders the government stands on.  For some reason people don’t seem to realize this in their blind quest to be perfect patriots.  Patriotism is not blindly following your country.  Patriotism is taking what your country gives you and trying to make it better, trying to make it a country you can be proud of.  Now here’s another favorite, this time from a different document.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Well I think that pretty much covers it all.  Happy Independence Day to all the real Americans out there, the ones who believe that they can say what they want to say, that they can protest and point out the flaws in their country’s armor.  Those are the real patriots.  And a final thank you to the soldiers fighting overseas and on the home front, you’re the real heroes among all of this.  God bless you all, and this is a tribute to you.

SONG OF THE DAY: GOD BLESS THE USA

 

God bless the USA.  And God bless all of the true Americans living and defending it.  Happy 4th of July.  Enjoy the fireworks. 

Friday/Saturday/Sunday – I’m Back!

I’m sure that none of you care about your humble blog writer returning from the Poconos, but it does mean that I’ll be back every night at about eleven o’clock with a new post.  And what’s better for my fiftieth post than a three-day mega-post that will leave your eyes bleeding for more?

FRIDAY

We go to our grandparents’ house, which is pretty old and has a couple of pretty bad beds.  I probably got the worst one in the house, and when I go to sleep tonight it will feel like total bliss.  Still, I managed to get a good ten hours of sleep before we had to leave to go look at a house.  That’s our hobby when we’re up there, we go look at houses every once in a while with the far-off idea that we may find one we can afford.  We used to even have a condo down the shore, but that was sold a long time ago because it got too expensive.

Anyway the house we looked at wasn’t the greatest.  It was really narrow and the bedrooms were about the size of one of those alcoves at school.  Also, across the street there was this huge house with a bunch of ritzy windows… so you got to live across from the rich people too.  The one great thing though, was the view.  It was amazing.  It overlooked this huge glen with a little cliff and a massive green where you could see deer walking around.  There was also this Stonehenge-esque circle of trees at the edge of the grass, which by itself was pretty cool.  To wake up with that outside your window every morning would be a pretty good compensation for the fact that your bedroom would fit in a matchbox.

As for the rest of that day, we pretty much stayed at the house.  I tried and failed to connect to the internet, which let me on about once every hour and kicked me off within five minutes.  We played a few games and watched a decently funny Disney-esque movie about animals who basically attack this one poor sap who tries to develop their land.  Ken Jeong was in it; that was really what made it good.  And of course I’ll do a song… but I’ll do a song for each day.  So you’re getting three for the price of free.

SONG OF FRIDAY: RESISTANCE

 

SATURDAY

Saturday was probably the hottest day of the weekend so we went down to the lake for a swim, thinking it was going to be nice and warm.  In reality, it was freezing cold.  Still I managed to swim out to the raft in the middle once despite the fact I haven’t swam in about a year, and even managed to make it back to shore without going under once even though I was burning more than if I’d run a mile.  Swimming is exhausting.  I have newfound respect for all swimmers; that is ten times harder than playing basketball.  I don’t know how you do it…

Then while my allergies were having their revenge for the rest of the afternoon I watched some of the NCIS marathon (trying to forget the fact that it was also an SVU marathon), and started Little Brother.  Now I’m about halfway through, and let me say that that is an amazing book.  I can’t justify it in one blog post, or even several, so you should just go get it.  Oh yeah… it’s also completely and legally free under the Creative Commons license… so here’s the link:

http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

Believe me.  It’s worth the fifty seconds.

SONG OF SATURDAY: I FOUGHT THE LAW

 

SUNDAY

Sunday it poured for almost the entire day, so my family engaged in probably the most cutthroat game of Monopoly you will ever find.  My strategy has always been to buy up all the purples and light blues, you know the really cheap ones, and build hotels on them as quickly as I could.  However that didn’t quite work this time, as my mom and sister made a minefield of $1000 hotels up the left side of the board.  I ended up bankrupted.  I hope that’s not an omen for my future…

Then after that we went out for some fireworks over Lake Harmony, which also gave me my current desktop background for my computer.  The sunset itself was amazing over the lake, which made up for the fact that the fireworks were a little disappointing.  They were still good… but nothing compared to some of the other shows I’ve seen.  Also they had an awesome band (called Pocket Rocket out of Harrisburg) playing who, even after their equipment got soaked by the rain, managed to crank out an awesome show.  Ever heard Poker Face played on acoustic guitar and sung by a guy (no jokes)?  How about Sweet Child of Mine?  Or even some Queen?  Wonderwall?  Summer of ‘69?  Don’t Stop Believing?  Anyway it was an amazing show and a great night.  There was almost nothing that could have made it better…

SONG OF SUNDAY: SUMMER OF ‘69

 

This is (as I said) one of the songs they played, and I chose this one because it’s the one I’m sure you’ve never heard.  It’s a great old song with some awesome guitar.

Now that was the end of my mountain adventure… but I’m not done yet!!  I’ve still got Monday’s post coming up.  Being 4th of July, expect some social commentary.  So I won’t say goodnight just yet…