Existential without a super soaker.

A bit of background first. I was going through my facebook when I saw that my second cousin, who lives in Michigan, felt sick. I expressed my deepest sympathies in her ailment, and wished her a speedy recovery. Normal, right? A couple of days later one of my cousin's friends commented/replied to my comment and said "who the heck r u?"
This blatant...I don't even know how to characterize this. Is this an overprotective friend who thinks I'm a 43 year old stalker?
Who the heck am I? Aside from my humble origins, and half-assed devotion to logic, I'm not sure who I am. What I believe in. If I wasn't so rational I would have just replied "I wish I knew". I wish I knew overprotective friend, Oh how I wish.

Hello again, Internets. Here is my "belief" modeled after the NPR "this I believe" series. And bear in mind that it will sound so much more awesomer when recorded. Enjoy...Do it...Enjoy it. NOW.

I believe in logic. In rationalism. I believe in acting based on what you think -- on what you know -- rather than on impulse -- on how you feel at the moment. Logic has not and will not let me down. She is my light in the darkness of ignorance and uncertainty. My guide to this mad world. Without her I am lost.

I am left-brained, and as such math and science come easily to me while poetry and art do not. Logic's influence is therefore gained in me more easily than in the average person's. I believe that this is an advantage. I can act without the influence of emotion when the need arises, and am generally more level-minded throughout the day, constantly comparing everything I do with what Logic would. With fewer ups and downs in my life I can more often act unblinded by hatred or greed.

Were it not for logic I would have surely gone mad by now. Outcast in the budding years of elementary school -- picked on by some until every fiber of my being screamed out in objection to this injustice. For the briefest periods of time at recess, I had no one. I was too young to remember, but perhaps it was at this time that I met logic. Allowed her to comfort me with some well placed words of reason. Council as to how insignificant those who teased me were. Logic taught me at that moment to be strong the way nothing else could.

Logic, why would I accept your boring, beautiful self into my embrace? Why would I give you sway over my entire life so it could be lived straightforward, and as a result not lived at all!?! You do not have my whole heart. Life without you is so frighteningly random that I couldn't possibly live, but life's decisions made with only your guidance is so frighteningly predictable that it is not life at all, just a logical sequence of events. I walk the line, therefore, between rationality and absurdity, between emotion and detachment, between order and chaos. This is how I live. This is what I believe.

If I were to give 3-5 theme songs that most related to me, the first one would definitely be the Imperial March (aka. Darth Vader's theme song) not because I'm evil incarnate or anything, but just because when I get really hungry or am having a bad day and someone crosses me I feel that this music would suit me very well. Also it would be SO cool to have that playing in the background as I walked around doing daily activities just to serve as a warning not to mess with me.

As one should know from my Sam Spade mix tape, I don't listen to much other than soundtracks and some select artists, so my range of music is generally without words. Perfect for theme songs, but not for writing about theme songs. Unfortunately I can't find any songs with words that I think represent me. So sue me-- no, don't sue me. That is opposite the point I'm trying to make.

I think that "One Day" from the Pirates of the Caribbean III soundtrack could also represent me when I'm stricken with bouts of self-pity and such. At the beginning of the song it sounds rather epic with a constant swelling, I guess I would put it, until a moderately loud peak. The song then drops down to a soft, sweet, and rather long Pirates III theme which quite resembles the periodic, and quite sudden mood shifts I experience from time to time. The song slowly crescendos while keeping it's minor key and sweet feeling and then drops back down to finish. As I sometimes loose steam from doing something that requires a long attention span...like this blog.

For my third song I shall choose "A walk in the woods" from the Halo I soundtrack. Along with a deep bass line which is awesome, it has a nice melody, but is rather short. I like to think that this is what I'm like after the caffeine kicks in: very peppy, but also awesomely cool with my bass line. This song doesn't last long at about two minutes, and I am always disappointed when the song starts to fade out, just like crashing after caffeine.

Here are some YT links for the majority of the people reading this who don't know what the f*** I'm talking about:
imperial march
one day
a walk in the woods

crave intelligence but just a fanboy



Rich old guy seeks young woman. Personality optional. Prenuptial agreement mandatory.


Popular girl seeks popular guy for short-term relationship ending in a violent break-up and a day of crying on a friend's shoulder about someone she never really liked.


M, English teacher, seeks woman good enough for me.
Turn-ons: Correct grammar and punctuation, embedded quotes, hugs.
Turn-offs: Weak words, summary and/or paraphrasing of a quote from the book.

Dear past self,
Through some rift in the space time continuum, a portal into another dimension, the invention of a time machine, or paying so much on postage that they sent it so fast it arrived before it left, I have been able to transmit you this message from the future. Rather than bore you with the seemingly meager technological advances of my time, or risk a paradox by telling you about future events, I shall give you advice about how to make yourself into a better me.
Firstly, be yourself. Don't partake in what others are doing because it is the in thing to do. Do what you feel is right and blaze your own trail. Read more novels and develop your own tastes in authors and genres rather than reading what others have because they liked the book. That is good also, but develop your own unique style.
Have a few very good friends you can trust and support you when life throws a curve ball, and then some friends you can talk to about casual stuff. This will become important in years to come so choose wisely. Also, avoid characters who are obviously sleazy and/or without morals. Their befriendment will come to no good end.
Read Lord of the Rings. Memorize the minute details. You will reap the benefits of being in such a prestigious position later in life. (This doesn't count as reading what other people tell you to. I am you, so I know that LotR == awesome)
Put others before yourself and observe what repercussions your actions could have on others. Then when people question your choices and reasoning, you will always have a valid response. This will make you into a more compassionate, observant, self-confident, and hopefully a better me.
Think BEFORE you open your mouth. This is along the same lines. Think about what you are saying and how the person might react to your saying it. Don't be afraid to sacrifice something humorous to say if you aren't sure how it will be taken.
Stand up for yourself. Don't take abuse from you classmates or bullies. If they don't treat you right, then they don't deserve to be in any way associated with you. If no one is nice to you at school or wherever, then just be a bookworm/gamer/intellectual loner. There's a certain elegance and respectability to being your own best friend. Just as long as you're sure there's nobody that will treat you as they would want to be treated and that you don't look stupid huddled up in the corner all alone. Be confident in your choices. If nobody is there for you, than know it, own it, always try to find somebody decent to hang with, and then look cool being the rebel anti-social.
Take advantage of the situation within reason. If the opportunity is not going to come around again, and it would be the logical course of action to take action, then do so.
Love,
Your screwed up self.

Note to reader: I hope I didn't offend anyone. Assume that this doesn't reference any past events or actions that you, the reader, were involved in.

 

I just had a snicker doodle. I wonder why it's called that. It was good but very hard from being in the freezer for a very long time. I had shortbread once that tasted just like the bread from a snicker doodle. My friend said I didn't have to eat it, but it looked good so I ate it.

Dongle: an electronic device that must be attached to a computer in order to use protected software. Who would make up a name that silly for something that is otherwise a serious piece of computer hardware? He he. Dongle.

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who know binary, and those who don't. I pity those who don't. They're missing out

"If one is going to Africa, lets say, to help out some poverty stricken people there by doing manual labor like building a house. Wouldn't more get done with the money you spend on the 2-way airfare and other expenses if you just donated it to organizations that already existed there?"
"They say that you get as much out of a trip like that as the people you're helping."
"So you have to decide what is more important. Helping the people in Africa, or getting something out of it (personality-wise)."

Why in the world would they name it the Wii? It just prompts too much bathroom related humor.

If the world of politics was a train, the liberals would try to make the train go faster, the conservatives slower, the moderates would be content with the speed, and the independents would drive cars.

Bicycles are vehicles, and as such they have to obey the rules of the road. I find it interesting that there is no mandatory course that bicyclists have to take to be bicyclists nor any effort to raise awareness. (school assemblies, etc.) If everything is to conform to laws, than the laws have to be perfect. If they aren't perfect than you are caught in the middle, having to do illogical things to keep from being arrested.

If the whole world went green it wouldn't make a difference. We would just plain run out of resources to use. The only real way to keep the world alive and to not get dead is to a) move to other planets, or b) limit the population. Since we are a far cry away from inventing anything close to warp travel we're probably going to have to choose the latter.

If you're going to name one the mouse, you might as well name the other the cat, the gerbil, or something else. On the other hand, if you're going to name one the keyboard, you might as well name the other the double buttoned clicker, or something. Mouse and keyboard just don't go together if you analyze them on a fundamental level.

Why is the rum always gone? Because you only think about the rum being gone when it actually is gone. Then you remember the time before when the rum was gone, and the time before that. If you thought about it when it wasn't gone, then the rum wouldn't always be gone.

Back in medieval times when the average person encountered something they didn't understand, they wrote it off as magic. Now when someone sees something they don't understand, it's science. Conclusion: magic=science

 

In case one hadn't caught my Firefly reference in my ideal day post, I will explain. Firefly, one of Joss Whedon's many creations is a show that combines hard Sci-Fi (of course) with Western and lots and lots of comedy. Very awesome. Joss Whedon, for those of you who may not know who he is, created Buffy and Firefly, wrote Fray (a comic we have down in the AHS library that is, of course, a mix of Buffy and Firefly), Angel, directed a couple of Office episodes, and many other cinematic accomplishments. Firefly is best explained through the words of the main-ish character Malcolm Reynolds:

"Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with new technologies, some not so much. Central Planets, them was formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the Serenity. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, his genius sister from some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is."

Serenity, Malcolm (Mal)'s ship is a smuggling ship with a wide variety of characters and personalities. Besides it's obvious underlying plot appeal, Firefly employs some interesting quirks to boost it from good to brilliant. As humanity spread out to colonize the galaxy, the two most powerful countries' languages and cultures (America and China) took dominance. As a result the whole galaxy (no aliens have been discovered) speaks English with random, and always hilarious, interspersings of Chinese curses. Another thing that makes Firefly worth watching is the camera work: though a camera isn't actually used in filming Serenity in space, one sees it noticeably focusing in on the ship; with shots facing toward the sun, there is that line thingy with all of the polygons. There's a technical term, but I don't know what it is. They refer to the universe as the 'verse, which is super sweet. Lastly, there's the background music which is basically just some soft western sounding random string pieces.

Unfortunately, Firefly was canceled after the first season due to incompetence at fox when they showed it all out of order, so I don't want any crap about that. Basically, Firefly is awesome. There's nothing more to it. Yes.

One must understand a few things in advance: It is rather unlikely that I would take a sick day off unless I was dying. It would also be hard to pull a fast one on my mom who is a nurse and knows her stuff. If I was, however, devious enough to fake being sick or too tired to go to school, me day would probably look something like this:
After faking sick at home, I liberated some friends stuck in class and set out on my adventure. We took bart to San Francisco because none of us had a license yet. We first went to a hot dog stand to have brunch. We then went to that giant pyramidal building and looked out at the city for a while and observed traffic. After a slight tussle with security (which we narrowly escaped) we went out to the golden gate bridge and looked at that for a spell. We then witnessed a car crash, and helped the victim out of the car for which we were thanked profusely. We met a group of Klingons (many reside in San Francisco) and we learned some Klingon insults, death threats, and other common-speech. We were swept up in a parade complete with floats and giant balloons. It was nearing 5:00 so we hopped back on bart and hurried home. Then, unlike Ferris Bueller, I returned home with plenty of time to spare and did the blog assignment.

    Art analysis isn't really my thing. It's somewhat of a disability I have, my inability to analyze art and poetry, along with not being able to tell whether something I say will be seen as offensive. You know, the right brained stuff. But on to the art. I was particularly attracted to Rene Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." (The following is my left-brained, literal analysis of it.) The first question that popped into my head was: Why the #!$% isn't it a pipe? It sure looks like one. Some right-brained person could probably make up a better analysis like: "Well, it shows how futile life is and what our purpose is in the universe…" but I'll stick to my approach. It is not a pipe, that's just the name we assign it? Yeah, I'll go with that. We just assign names to everything but our assigning names does not change the object. It is itself and nothing more. The non-pipe is what we think of when we think of a pipe, but that does not make it a pipe.

     Just a plain ol’ pipe with a normal background and “this is not a pipe” written in French below it. That’s something I would do. Give a normal object or action and draw a conclusion contrary to common since. Something so crazily random and idiotic that it’s brilliant. The question remains: why did Rene paint this ordinary pipe and say that it’s not a pipe. Well, what is a pipe? Is it something that you smoke tobacco out of? It’s rather loosely defined, and if something vaguely fits the description of a pipe we put it in the pipe category. It should be a pipe; it fits our fuzzy description of one.

     I heard of this French poem that this famous poet wrote. The theory is that he put together some random words and published it as a poem just to see how the philosophers and other thinkers would analyze it and draw profound conclusions from it. The point of this being that if one tries hard enough, they can derive deep conclusions to life, the universe, and everything from just about anything. That is what I think Rene Magritte is doing in this painting. Painting a picture of a pipe and then saying it’s not a pipe doesn’t make since. People with more creativity would probably be able to derive some profound significance from it just like they would anything else, but lil’ old me is stuck with just a left hemisphere. :-(

If I were to create my own ideal life, it would have many differences from my life today. In the singles ad format (though I wouldn't be single) it would read: "I am a (insert nerdy profession here) with a girlfriend/wife and two cats. I enjoy Lord of the Rings marathons and I live in the bay area. My girlfriend/wife shares many of my interests and we are very close. I drive a hybrid or all-electric car with various bumper stickers. I drink coffee in the morning and drive to work where I have many friends and we do intellectually intensive non-monotonous work and crack smart jokes. In my spare time I watch a few TV shows and enjoy reading, some gaming, and robotics. I play D&D (dungeons and dragons) in which I am a powerful magician, and attend renaissance faires. I have high self confidence and self esteem."
A sample diary entry from a day in my ideal life: I was awakened by the purring and general will of my younger, black cat. Walking groggily over to her bowl, I put food in it as she rubbed up against my leg. My girlfriend/wife had been up for a while and greeted me with a sweet "good morning honey". I drank my daily cup of coffee and set off for work with a goodbye kiss. I arrived at my job where I work with others designing (insert nerdy thing to be designing here). The time went by fast and during the lunch break we watched a couple episodes of firefly before returning to our non-labor-intensive but satisfying job. After making significant progress toward our goal, I returned home to play some video games while waiting for my girlfriend/wife to return from her work so we could go out for our weekly D&D night which we play with our mutual friends. When she came home I asked her how her day was and she me. We walked like we normally did to our friend's house where we exchanged pleasantries and were ushered into a game with plenty of junk food and caffeinated drinks to go around. We left after a long game and walked home talking to each other and stayed up late watching and discussing Star Wars. 

Where to begin in charting my fashion history...

First off, since forever, I have held a dislike towards jeans. They are uncomfortable and stiff. As an alternative, I generally wear sweatpants or, on occasion, cargos. This, along with my dislike toward polo shirts from a bad childhood experience, dictates what I wear from day to day: sweat pants, T-shirt, and a sweatshirt. The sweat pants and T-shirt vary often; the sweatshirt is a little more interesting.

It was 6^th grade I had just transferred into the Albany system and as would be expected I was nervous. The school I had transferred from had demanded a uniform, so I guess I could blame that for my bad taste in clothes at that time. In 6^th grade I managed to wear the exact same outfit over the course of many days quite a few times. A sweatshirt and sweat pants were all I needed to survive for quite a length. I was much too busy focusing on the well known rigorous academics of sixth grade to delve into trivial matters of personal hygiene. My common rebuttal to the ever-present question of why I wore the same sweatshirt (the rest weren’t as readily noticed) was: "I wash it at night" even if that usually wasn’t true. After a while I grew out of my one sweatshirt and started wearing its larger, exact duplicate. This continued until I received a different sweatshirt from my mom, probably fearing for my sanity.

This ushered in a change in my fundamental dressing habits. Not only would I now pick the T-shirt and pair of sweat pants from the top of their respective drawers, but also I now picked a sweatshirt at random from the closet. This relieved the stress of locating my token sweatshirt from a variety of places I had needed to search before. After the initial shock and incessant questioning about my change in sweatshirt-wearing (seriously, you can’t win with people) I became comfortable with wearing various ones. I gradually accumulated quite a collection.

During the beginning/middle-ish of this sophomore year I was asked to participate in a wardrobe makeover hosted by the yearbook. I agreed mostly because I wanted to see what it would be like to be put in the spotlight. I was brought to target where I tried on shirts and jeans. JEANS!   I don’t know where I was going with this, but the point is that my opinion on jeans hadn’t changed and I still liked sweats.

I have nothing further to write. I know my fashion history isn’t as exciting as everyone else’s, but I hope you enjoyed reading it.

1. Do you believe in karma?
It's a nice idea that your actions will eventually come back and bite you, but I have to say no. It doesn't make since that one's actions come back to them, for lack of a better word, magically. Karma does, however, help enforce the golden rule (do to others what you would have them do to you) and therefore karma in my mind is a nice philosophy but doesn't change things in the long run. Good and bad things happen to good people. Karmaists would point out the good things and say that it was karma that these good things happened to them. This of course doesn't make sense.
2. What one current event in any aspect of world news do you think is being most neglected or underrepresented?
Net neutrality. Yes. Corporations want to have people pay more for preferential bandwidth to certain sites. This is different from paying for a faster internet connection in that, for example, if one goes to google and they haven't payed to be their friend, then it gets really slow on google's end rather than just being laggy in upload and download on your end.
you upload file/message to a website>they process it>you download their file/reply
If there was no net neutrality, the "they process it" part would go REALLY slowly if you hadn't payed to be a friend of that website. It's a freedom we're talking about. If net neutrality caves in, we will have lost yet another freedom.
3. If you could have any one superpower, what would it be and why?
(Sorry if you don't get the Heroes references.)
Finally a question that I've considered previously. For usefulness in combat it would be a toss up between regeneration (Claire, Adam, and Peter) and the ability to manipulate time (Hiro). Regeneration because one is just about immortal and cannot be permanently stopped from fighting. For the second, I could just pause time, beat the crap out of someone and restart it. For a power that I think symbolizes me, I would either choose to be a technopath (Micah) (the ability to talk to technology/machines/computers) or be able to silence things at will. If I had to choose one overall, it would be technopathy. Yeah.
4. If you could invite any 5 famous people or characters to your birthday party, who would you pick?
Darwin, Jesus, Masi Oka, Professor Xavier, and Mr. Ross. It would be cool to meet Darwin and Jesus. They also wouldn't hog all of the cake. Masi Oka is like my roll model. In heroes he has an awesome since of duty and he is a great actor. Professor Xavier would be great to meet also and a great experience. Mr. Ross needs no explanation.
5. If you could live in any film or book, what would you select? Would you want to be one of the characters, or would you want to be you (introduced as a new character)?
I would live in Ender's Game and be Ender. This would be ideal because I love that book and I can settle with no less than main character ranking.
6. Who of your friends would make the best president? I can't wait to know why.
Let's go with Seung. He's rational and composed most of the time, and would not let the power go to his head. From what I know about him, he would hear different sides of an issue and not make many rash decisions about things he feels strongly about.
8. If you could invent a new class for AHS to teach, what would it be?
Elvish 1, 2, 3, 4, and AP. I could name about 4 people that I know that would take it and there are probably more at this school that would. After it caught on and became the official language of the world, or at least America, it would be mandatory like english is now.
9. Identify any symbol from any film ever (pick your favorite if you can think of many from which to choose). Identify what it means and why you picked it.
Eh. The spoon from the Matrix I guess. From it's debut in #1 it gets another appearance in #3 along with a chapter on the dvd named after it. It is connected to the phrase from #1 "there is no spoon". This meaning that the a spoon, but really everything in the matrix, isn't real. It's pretty much the only thing that comes close to a symbol in the matrix and I couldn't think of anything else.
10. Will humankind still exist in 300 years?
Yes, assuming that we find habitable planets besides Mars, develop warp technology, and don't kill ourselves with global warming first. I hold the opinion that if human population was thinned to anywhere from 4 million to a billion, we could keep ourselves from killing the environment with food, energy, and goods productions.
11. What is the most embarrassing song to ever grace your IPOD? Why was it there, may I ask?
I haven't had any really embarassing songs on my ipod. Maybe a few with some curse words. Once I tried to put comics on my ipod. That didn't really work out because I couldn't zoom in to see what the people were saying. I also had some star trek and heroes episodes on it.
12. Corey Chin's brilliant question (and it's got me curious): How much would you charge to clean Mr. Ross' microwave?
Probably $11-27 depending on my mood (and sanity) at the time. I'd feel guilty to take from a teachers oh so small paycheck (no offense Ross), but on the other hand it's pretty gross in there.
13. Did you support your answers?
Yes.

Random thoughts, interesting...I see a mirror and a little pink cup, I wonder why pink is considered a girl's color. I guess that boys wear pink too, though. I kinda fear being made fun of if I wear pink. Do I have a protractor, my brother asks. No I don't we don't have geometry this year. Algebra two honors. It's not that hard, but the normal alg2 students keep asking me about logs when we haven’t learned about them yet. That doesn't make much since. I am doing work, although this hardly counts as work. The comics were really funny today in the Sunday paper. Foxtrot especially. I have an awesome google homepage that gets my favorite comics. It's psychic and knows what I like. That would be awesome to have a computer that thought, but also kinda creepy. It would have to have a female persona, though, because all of the male AI's I know of have gone evil. (I.e. My picture) The female AI's are generally nice and helpful, and are nice to talk to. Jane, Sara, and Maggie to name a few. From the Ender's game series, Eureka, and A Sound of Thunder respectively. I like sci-fi. It makes me happy. I can't believe that I have to write a sci-fi short story for English. I haven't started yet, and other people's ideas seem better than mine. :-(  I don't know why I'm not listening to music right now. I guess it's because I got to homework straight away. I don't watch much TV. Just an hour on Friday, two on Sunday, and little else. It's good to have structure in one's life. It makes it easier to not go insane. Think, think, I used to not listen to any music. Another way for people to think I'm weird, but it's not hard. I embrace it, and hang out with people who either are weird, or don't care about. I didn't read either, and I’ve taken that up. It's half for pleasure and half because I think I need it. I took my leather man with me today. No reason for it, but it is good to be prepared. Its knife is pretty sharp, but the serrated blades are extremely dull. I don't think that they're supposed to be that way. I'm kinda obsessed with being prepared, so I can be looked up to as the guy that thought ahead in emergency times. I don't like that no bringing knives to school rule. If it's on a multitool it should be allowed. I mean we're allowed to bring scissors to school, right. And the knife I would bring would just be about that size. You can hurt people with scissors, so why are they allowed and knives aren't. A mystery. I guess if they let knives be allowed at school, people would push for guns to be allowed too. Along with nun-chucks, and ninja stars. Are light sabers allowed? No the real ones I mean, but fake ones that nerds buy. You can't really hurt people with those. People could get more hurt from a bat, or scissors than from a light saber. Something to think about. Where do you draw the line on what is acceptable and what isn't. It should be something like what one intends to do with the supposed weapon. If, like me, you just want to be prepared, or get your nerd fix, then knives and light sabers should be allowed. Times up.
{ctrl}a, {windows}r, winword, {enter}, {ctrl}v, {spell check button}, enter lots of times, {ctrl}a, {alt}{tab}, {ctrl}v

The following is an essay about my choice of songs for Sam Spade of The Maltese Falcon. Let me know if you see him.

Track 1: Enigma, Return to Innocence

This track is interesting and I think it represents Sam Spade in a variety of ways. The first intelligible lyrics listen “Don't be afraid to be weak/Don't be too proud to be strong”. This sums up a number of Spade’s character traits in one bundle. He is, no doubt, unafraid of being too weak, but doesn’t boast about his strength, or the incredible abilities he has. His strengths include his physical strength, coolness under pressure, and his obvious ability to solve mysteries. Another part of the song listens: “Be yourself don't hide”. Sam Spade is himself throughout the whole book, being very blunt and straightforward. His interactions, especially with Brigid O’Shaughnessy, reveal this to the reader. When he tells her that he didn’t believe a word of her sob story about being the victim, she is appalled, but surprised at the same time that he could have guessed her true nature. Finally the title: Return to Innocence is something Spade needs to do desperately. He has seen more corruption and killing than the normal person, but more importantly, at the crime scene of his dead partner Archer he shows no emotion whatsoever and treats it like business as usual. This is an obvious sign that something is seriously wrong with him and he needs to unwind and relax.

Track 2: Extreme Ways, Moby

            Of all, this has to be the one song that relates the most to Sam Spade’s character. He is…hardboiled, simply put, and almost nothing fazes him. Sometime in his past he went through a transition period probably consisting of too many “Dirty basements, dirty noise/Dirty places coming through”. This caused him to become the stoic persona one sees him as in this book. As I mentioned before, Spade is extremely detached emotionally from the world around him, as seen when his partner dies. “I closed my eyes and closed myself/And closed my world and never opened up to anything/That could get me at all” was his response to all of the “dirty things” he encounters in his life. Corruption, malice, and violence probably played a big part in the development of his character in this book. To reiterate this point, throughout the song Moby sings with what I thought to be abandon, pain, and hopelessness. This parallels Sam Spade, who acts with abandon throughout the book and takes bold moves without ever looking back or regretting his actions.

Track 3: South Side, Moby

            This song has deep, dark lyrics with a peppy melody, a contradicting combination. “[H]ere we are now, going to the east side […] here we are now going to the west side […] here we are now going to the north side […] here we are now going to the south side” parallels Spade’s versatility. He doesn’t identify with any of the stereotypical communities of these parts of a city, but rather is introverted and lives in his own part of town. “[L]ove and darkness and my sidearm” is a rather direct association to Spade’s character who dabbles in the physical aspect of love, is at home in the dark (also a reference to the noir/hardboiled genre of this book), and never leaves home without a firearm and has used it on multiple occasions.  With the phrase: “I pick up my friends and we hope we won't die”, along with the nonchalant nature of the song and its major key imply an intimate and comfortable knowledge of Spade’s own mortality in general. He is not afraid to die, but hopes to do so in a way that will be beneficial to others, a quality that much of us lack.

Track 4: If things were perfect, Moby

            A similar piece to South Side, this song is not a favorite of mine for its depressing melody and lyrics. “[I]solated walking long hard hours” reflects Spade’s life; being very isolated indeed, he walks around the city when not on a case and when he is for that matter. Spade, as it is well known, doesn’t socialize well with others, which explains why he doesn’t have many friends, but a multitude of acquaintances. The Maltese Falcon’s dark feel is only amplified by Spade’s attitude toward the world. The song gives reference to this exact kind of attitude with the phrase “there’s no warm here anyway”. Spade reminds me especially of Holden from Catcher in the Rye because of his rather critical view of the world and his view that nobody can be trusted except for himself. Also, Spade is often “wrapped in cold, late at night” doing things that only he would because of his dark, dreary nature.

Track 5: The Kraken, Hans Zimmer

A song without words, as most of Zimmer’s are, this song starts out with a tiny bass melody that is repeated over and over with growing enthusiasm. The cellos, and horns, in succession, join the bass and the volume grows until it boils over into a loud peak. This can be compared to Spade’s emotional state at the beginning of the book. He is the bass playing its low, minor, and dormant tune. When Archer dies, he is pulled into action that matches the climax reached in the previous section. The volume drops down and for a time the song is peaceful. When one starts to get used to the tranquility, the volume peaks again and the listener is plunged into action once again. Like in the song, Sam Spade transitions rather suddenly from his dormant to energized state, and suddenly back again. This can be observed in his first encounter with Joel Cairo where he springs into action under gunpoint to turn the tables. The rest of the song goes on like this, from low periods to high periods, much like a square wave. The song’s intensely dark theme can also be related to Sam Spade and the personality of The Maltese Falcon. If anything, The Kraken, along with the rest of Zimmer’s music, is a response to classical music using the same instruments. This is very similar to the thought that Hardboiled Fiction was a response to its lighter and more intellectual English counterpart.

P.S. If it reaches my ears that someone scoffs at my choice of songs, I will be overjoyed to disembowel said person. Yes, I am touchy on this subject,  so if one chooses to comment or talk about this, it had better be compliments, neutral comments, or constructive criticism. Otherwise, they will find themselves at the wrong end of a very sharp and pointy thing. Thanks.

    I have never liked going out to a fancy restaurant to eat; it never tastes very good to me. Don't ask me why, for I don't know. I guess that all of that fat and grease of fast food places has me hooked, but then again, I'm fine with real local burger joints and all that. I remember when I went to a rather expensive restaurant with my grandparents, and I ordered some French toast. The French toast was OK at best. It just didn't taste as good as if I had gone to a restaurant a couple of rungs down on the food quality level. It's not just French toast either; I have been to myriad restaurants and their food doesn't appeal to me as much as that of lower quality restaurants. In a similar instance, my grandparents were in town again, and this time we went to nations hamburgers. I had the French toast and my previous experience paled in comparison. This had been soaked in butter, and syrup, and had all the carbs, fat, and calories that anyone could ever want. The smell of it was initially overwhelming, and couldn't wait to eat.
    As I understand it, humans have a natural tendency to like fatty foods as an evolutionary mechanism to keep people from starving. Now, though, most Americans have a constant food supply and this very mechanism serves to make them fat. This is how I explain why people go to McDonald's in general; it just tastes good. I guess I enjoy this kind of food for that very reason and  I can't understand how expensive restaurants get customers. (Sorry people who do like higher quality food, me trying to understand your opinion on this is just like me trying to visualize four or five spacial dimensions. It just can't be done when I live with something different.)
    All said and done, rather unhealthy French toast is not my favorite food, though it does rank close. My favorite food has to be English muffins. Pure goodness is what they are. Better than bread, and bagels, these great pieces of engineering taste, of course, sweetened but I'm not really sure. Having just discovered this love, I am on my honeymoon and am pumped more than normal about this.
    Imagine a kid that no one likes and has no friends. Then imagine that I meet this kid, realize how nice and sweet he is, and eat him. If you didn't catch on to the metaphor before, the kid was the English muffin, and I was myself. I tried one of these and really liked it, for reasons I can't explain. I really don't know how other people feel about English muffins, though, so I assumed that everybody picks on them and that they don't have any friends except for me. I eat them, though, so it's lose-lose for the English muffin boy. Sorry English muffin boy.
    There aren't really any discerning qualities about said muffin that sets him apart from everybody else. He smells and feels like any other bread product. English muffins don't really have some of the weaknesses of their brothers and sisters. Bagels dry out too easily and suck the moisture literally right out of one's mouth, and toast is rather crunchy  in comparison to the muffins. The muffins remain soft even after being through the toaster a couple hundred times, and they miraculously don't dry out one's mouth.
    English muffins are a brilliant invention and I expect that they took many engineers many sleepless nights to design such a brilliant food.

3. If you could choose new parents, what would they be like? How do they look and act? What do they do for work, hobbies, etc.

4. If you could live in any decade, what decade would you live in? Why? What opportunities would you take advantage of in said decade?

5. If you had to be any Disney character, who would you be and why?

6. There is a difference between the moral man and the criminal. The moral man has a legitimate reason to steal. Support or refute the person’s objectivity that stealing can be justified by the subjectivity of their life.

I have been deliberating on this topic for quite some time, and it is truly a hard question. If I were to write a movie, what would it be about, and how would I do it? Well firstly, I can establish some basic thoughts that I would have to include into my movie. First, it would be sci-fi. No question about that. Second, I probably would stick to the basic laws of physics when attempting this feat. Examples of this include not hearing explosions in space (no medium for the sound to travel through) and stuff like that. Come to think of it, my movie would probably be a film that made the person think, and didn't have THAT many action sequences in it. A couple might be cool, with really intense swordplay, but too many would just be boring. Oh and dragons. Lots of dragons. I'm a big fan of dragons.

So here it is, my movie idea:

It starts with a narritive. Probably a quote from from some philosopher about the inflexibility of the human spirit and our eagerness to reject those different from ourselves. While this is happening, an animation of the galaxy is slowly zooming into the earth (where we actually are in the galaxy, and silently, I might add),  and the animation continues, zooming in, to an apartment. The picture morphs seamlessly into a google earth screenshot of the same place, then zooms out of the computer screen, and turns to allow the viewer to survey the current setting: a bedroom littered with unhealthy-ish food trash and clothes strewn about carelessly that manage to give the room a more inviting feel, rather than a repulsive one. The camera then stops turning to rest on an image of a man. His face is obscured so one can't distinguish his age, and he is sleeping in the most ugly way possible.

(A couple of notes. No, this is not how MY bedroom looks, and sorry girls, I totally realize that men are more often the main characters of movies over women, but in this case, I needed a guy because we are just more irrational and prone to erratic behavior.)

The picture fades out and the following are a series of scenes that come in rapid succession after one another: an alarm clock goes off at 7:14, and a hand reaches up and slides it violently off of its table/headboard. A cupboard door opens, a box of cereal is removed. Then at the table, a bowl is set down, a spoon put inside the bowl, cereal and milk poured in, and the man takes his first bite. The camera focuses on his hands and the bowl, so one still can't make out his face or age. A cheery tune being played all the while. The man gets in his car, adjusts his rear-view mirror, and in the camera, the camera gets a glimpse of a man in his 20's looking rather grumpy.

From there, he goes to his work, sits down in his cubicle, is told by a co-worker that the boss wants to see him, goes to his boss' office, and is told that his work is sub-par. He argues, and is told that he has one day to stop goofing off, and how good the other workers are doing. He then observes a co-worker until he is discovered, and he returns to his desk. From there, he discovers that he is able to do a single processor-intensive math problem in his brain without thinking about it, when it comes up in his work. He is totally surprised, and the audiences can see that he didn't have this intelligence the day before. Throughout the day, he goes around correcting everyone when correction is needed. He isn't annoying and concerned with minor details, he just corrects major flaws in judgment, or incorrect answers to problems. (Analytical or otherwise)

In the rest of the movie, he gets fired because he is too unfocused, applies his newfound insight to various problems that confront him in the world, is kicked out of his apartment because the landlady/landlord thinks he is crazy, and goes on to become acquainted with a female college professor. He trumps her in knowledge and brain power (sorry again girls), and she eagerly introduces him to some of her smart friends. He proves himself more brilliant than them too. His fame grows, until he gets his face in the newspaper and the article tells about his inhuman intelligence. But instead of having the positive fame, that one would think he to have, he is stared at, shunned, and nobody talks to him. Then he wakes up one day, sees the original problem that he did when he realized his intelligence posted on his wall, attempts to do it, and can't. He smiles.

The end.


P.S. This probably would be a short film, because of its plot, and because I keep envisioning it that way. 

Of the subject of inventing something, I think that there are so many stupid inventions that one sees on infomercials and the sort, and therefore this is a difficult topic for me. Also, all of the good stuff has already been invented, (the wheel, kool aid, etc.) but if I were to create something that would cause good in this world, it would have to be something that didn’t make lives easier, but made them more fulfilling and meaningful. The last things we need are more idiotic inventions like laptops for third world countries and little electric carts for fat people. These inventions seem like a good idea, but they accomplish nothing in the long run. OK great, assuming you can get affordable laptops to people in third world countries, and making the big assumption that you can get them internet, what are they going to do? Look  at pictures of clean water and food? We should focus on getting these people necessities first and then worry about the other stuff. For my other example: Why should fat people get carts to move around, or handicapped stickers so they can park closer. In my opinion, they should have stickers that make them park farther away to get the exercise. It’s a positive feedback circuit. Their fatness makes them fatter which, in turn, makes them fatterer, and so on. But I digress. If I could think of a feasible invention that could do actual good in this world, I wouldn’t spend my time blogging. But as the reader can tell I blog and therefore, I cannot invent.

Speaking hypothetically, the qualities that my invention would need to have might include the following: it slows, stops, or reverses global warming, it helps third world countries (with food, water, or disease problems), or it aids in stopping the WMD crisis/standoff between the US and countries that we don’t like. All of these qualities probably wouldn’t be present in a single device, but if I could invent something, it would hopefully solve one of these problems. The reason I included the last reason was because, mainly, of the war in Iraq that got me thinking, although it is common knowledge that it is merely a war for oil and has nothing to do with my arms crisis. There is something to be said about this WMD standoff, though, that the general public is unaware of. There exists a phenomenon known as MAD or mutual assured destruction, which by the way is the best acronym in the history of the universe. What MAD states is that if we launch nukes and bomb their major cities, then their remote military outposts (think area 51), which remain intact, will launch nukes at our cities and both countries lose. Anyone who’s seen War Games knows exactly what I’m talking about. So basically all those protests about disarming our WMDs don’t do any good. Also, making more nukes doesn’t do any good either. A great metaphor that I heard concerning this very subject goes something like the following: Two people are standing waist high in gasoline. One has nine matches and one has ten. To say that one has any advantage over the other is preposterous.

In conclusion, I have no brilliant inventions in my brain. Just a few cobwebs and a rusty nail.

1. What is your favorite book?

 Ender's Game, no question, because it is a superbly written sci-fi novel about the struggles and adventures of a boy prodigy.

2. If you could/had to live in any country besides the United States, where would it be?

 I would live in Japan because I have a certain respect for it. They lead in the world's technology today and they are very far from the über-consumer society of the America we live in, to name a few reasons.

3. Who is your favorite superhero?

 My favorite superhero, hands down, has to be batman. To my knowledge, he has never been corrupted knowingly into doing evil, and in addition to having an almost limitless supply of money, he has an air of intelligence beyond that of the average billionaire. I especially like the dark batman comics where everything is, for lack of a better word, depressing.

4. If you could change any one law, what would it be?

I would definitely change the copyright laws regarding media that has already been aired on TV. If one can record a show, and edit out the commercials, why can't they share it with others?

5. Is life a matter of reality or is it all just based on perception?

 In case the reader is wondering, I have seen The Matrix and I do enjoy the ideas it brings up. (The first, not the second or third. They have everything except for a basic plotline, which I can't live without.) Life is without a doubt just based on perception. Reality==>Interpretation by the brain==>perception. This sequence of events is true for life in general, except that your brain can be tricked into thinking something is real when it's not. Hence the matrix thing at the beginning.

6. Is it better to be too hot or too cold?

 Personally, I think it's better to be too hot because one doesn't have to worry about frostbite and other cold ailments (of which there are more than hot ailments).

7. Which is better: to get in a car accident that isn't your fault and lose a leg or to get into a car accident that is your fault and kill an old lady?

The former sounds more honorable, I would say. And I hear prosthetics are getting better!

8. Do you believe that pain and suffering is a necessary part of life?

 Yup, no question about it. That's what I think defines, at least in part, life in general. 150 years ago pain and suffering meant possibly getting a limb amputated without anesthetic. Today it might mean breaking a bone or having one's feelings hurt. We redefine what pain and suffering is every day, and if we lived in a world without it, we wouldn't be living.

9. Is animal testing acceptable?

 Not to say that I support PETA in any way whatsoever, but animal testing doesn't seem very nice to the animals. On the other hand, would you rather have people testing medicine, or animals? Most of humanity would say animals, I think. As for the answer to this question, acceptable it is. Although only as a substitute to human testing. No testing silly drugs or drugs that would never make it onto the market.

10. Do you believe that ghosts exist?

 Nope. Sorry, but ghosts just don't fit in my little bubble of logic.

11. Do you believe that you can never have too much of a good thing?

 No, you can have too much of a good thing, because one must have everything in moderation. The good thing's negative attributes, however small will be amplified until the result is unbearable for the receiver of the "good thing".

12. Do you believe that school is the best way to make a person smarter?

The best way to make a person smarter is to appeal to something they like or have a natural aptitude for.  If you try to teach them something that they don't want to be taught, in a way they don't like, they simply won't learn.

14. Do you believe that war can be justified?

 It can, but it is almost always over justified, and wars are justified that could be avoided. If the only way out of the complete extermination of a certain people or country is war, than that's fine. But that's usually not the case.

16. Do you think you are anyone's favorite person in the world?

I guess my parents' and maybe my closest friends', but probably not many peoples' favorite person. /cry Probability states that if everyone in the world had to choose only one person to be their favorite, you would only get picked once. I'm way over that estimation, and almost everyone that I know has someone they would choose as their favorite person over me.

In general, my beat-all hobby would be computering. One should note that I didn’t say surfing the internet or playing games, although those are things I enjoy doing. It’s hard to explain exactly what I like about the computer in general. I love the freedom it offers me and the ability I have, on the computer, to be the supreme dictator in deciding which data lives or dies. The range of possibilities the computer opens up for me.

(The following refers to the Windows operating system, which is what I grew up on, although I’ve come to enjoy Linux as well. Mac’s can die.)

When I was about eight, I discovered the function of the little “my computer” icon on the corner of my desktop: It allowed me to browse the contents of my computer manually, which opened up a wide range of possibilities to me and sparked the interest in computers I have today. I could see what was actually on the hard drive of my computer and where it was located. The reason for this, I suppose, is the fact that I enjoyed knowing exactly what happened inside that rather large grey box that stood looming until then.

From then on, I made small discoveries in the way my computer worked (software and hardware alike) to further my understanding and my desire to learn more. Computers and technology in general are my domain because I made them so. I did this because they understood me.

Computers don’t bring people together, but they offer a deeper understand of one’s self. With ultimate control over a computer, one thinks, and therefore they can master anything if they set their mind to it. With the knowledge of computers comes the knowledge that one does have the power to change things in this world. I know I’m rambling, so here are some similes!!!

Most people use GUI’s, or Graphic User Interfaces to interact with computers. These include most web browsers, text editors, media players, and operating systems for that matter. These programs manage their own files and don’t let the user control very much. This is fine for the purpose that these GUI’s play, but one downside is that they limit the mandatory knowledge of the user about how to do what the program does. GUI’s are like a window into a room of awesomeness, but having the knowledge of how to actually use the computer to its full potential is like being in the room of awesomeness.

One should make the decision whether they want to be a slave to society and obey all of the rules that programs, companies, and ultimately THE MAN set’s down for them, or whether they wish to go beyond that and enter into the real world of computing where anything is possible if you know how to do it.