timelessnotions

classes

2010-01-18T02:21:00.002-05:00

HAY LETS HANG OUT ON CAMPUS. OR SOMETHING.

Here's when I'll be there, in class at least. I could always be there at other times.. if people really wanted to hang out that badly.. don't know why that would happen though.

Monday
9:55 - 10:45 Sociology
11:00 - 11:50 Quantitative Methods
12:05 - 12:55 Personality

Tuesday
NO CLASS BITCHES

Wednesday (long fuck day)
9:55 - 10:45 Sociology
11:00 - 11:50 Quantitative Methods
12:05 - 12:55 Personality
5:30 - 8:15 Health Related Aspects of Aging

Thursday
NO CLASS BITCHES

Friday (same as Monday)
9:55 - 10:45 Sociology
11:00 - 11:50 Quantitative Methods
12:05 - 12:55 Personality

Shouldn't be too bad of a semester. Those 2 days off will be nice, I guess. Even though I'm sure I'll be working, maybe I could tell Giant Eagle that I need those days off... because... I have class.. hmm.
Wednesday is going to be a bitch, not too sure what the fuck I'm going to do with that 4.35 hour break.

Hang out with me on campus, faggorts.

new recording... thing

2010-01-14T13:38:00.003-05:00

So I decided to NOT stare at the wall today, and I did get this song recorded like I said I was hoping to in my last post. I started recording at about.. oh, say.. 11am, and it was done by about 1pm. I'm pretty surprised about how well it turned out for how long it didn't take. The rhythm guitar stuff was all worked out beforehand, but the lead guitar stuff was pretty much made up while I was doing the recording, at first I didn't even think I was going to have a lead guitar in it, but I really like what it does for the song.

There are two places you can listen to it I suppose, either on my Soundclick page, or on ye olde Myspace. (it's the song "next to you")

I think you can also see the lyrics on both those pages, if you're so inclined to do so. You could always look at my last post too, where I posted the lyrics.

Tell me what you think about it?

I won't tell you what it's about, because I don't like to really tell anyone what any of my songs are about, I like to leave it open to interpretation. You know, see of people can take their own meaning or ideas or inspiration from them. I doubt that ever happens with any of my own songs, but it doesn't hurt to wish, right?

I wish I had a piano here so I could add a little piano-action to my songs.

Anyways, I hope you like it.

next to you

2010-01-13T21:48:00.004-05:00

Man.. it's been since like.. September?

A lot of shit has happened since then, but I don't really feel like talking about it on here. So instead I'm going to post the word-part of this song that I wrote not too long ago. Hopefully I'll get to record it tomorrow if staring at the wall doesn't take up too much of my time.

it's obvious were almost perfect
for one another
but that's just because
perfection doesn't exist

i remember sitting on your bed
while you were lying, quietly laughing
just wishing i was
lying
laughing
next to you

there's probably nothing
i could say or do, to one
day come home to you
'cause i fucked things up
like i always do with everyone
but "probably" is just a word
that comes from my being absurd
and over-thinking things, like
"would i lose a good friend?"

i just wish i was
lying
laughing
next to you

i loved how we would talk about love
but really just talking
about one-another
or maybe it's just me
but "maybe" is just a word
that comes from my being absurd
and over-thinking things, like
"how do you really feel about me?"

i just wish i was
lying
laughing
next to you

blah blah blah

...it's better when accompanied by the music, I swear.

I suppose I'll post a link if I get it recorded.

i has a theory

2009-09-08T22:30:00.003-04:00

Okay so,

I was sitting in class today, and the professor was somewhat lecturing about how human intelligence can be looked at through a very Darwinian school of thought, which I've actually thought about a lot in the past, and it is pretty obvious really. But, that's not the point of this theory. What triggered this association in my mind (which I will describe shortly) was when the professor mentioned life coming from the sea, a very basic idea of Darwin's.

But, for some reason when he was talking about life coming from the sea, Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants, in some kind of crazy mental branching process, popped into my head. So, instead of paying attention to the lecture for about.. 5-10 minutes, I started thinking that the writers of the Spongebob show placed Patrick as the always stupid or oblivious character for a much deeper reason than most people probably think about.

It's because the writers of Spongebob are hardcore believers of Darwinian evolutionary theory!

I read not too long ago a scientific article about how some researchers predict that the starfish is one of our very early ancestors, which I always though kind of made sense, because it looks like it has a head.. two hands and two legs, the very basic outline of our bodies. Whether this is actually true or not, I dunno.. get some grad student to do research and write a thesis on it, but for my sake of argument we'll just assume it's true, because that's scientific and all.

So my theory is that the writers of Spongebob made the "stupid", or "less evolved" character of the show a starfish because it would be a direct parallel to a very early evolutionary ancestor of modern humans.

I dunno.. it's just a theory, but if there are any anthropology graduate students with a concentration in media, you should totally seek this out as a masters (or maybe even doctoral?) thesis.

...

I think this has the potential to be the most ridiculous blog post ever conjured up.

reconciliation

2009-09-07T21:03:00.002-04:00

This is an awesome song by Pain of Salvation

Well, things are starting to settle a little bit now that that first week of school has come and gone. I managed to not spend all TOO much money on books by borrowing books from friends that have already taken the classes or by just deciding that I can pass a class without the book and only attending lecture... (which is a lot easier to do than most people think, I think...)

My new room at my Dads' house is coming together, slowly but surely. Just have a few more pieces of furniture to buy... and have to somehow get a T.V. to my house that a lady at work is so generously giving to me. Yay! I still need to buy christmas lights to hang around the room though... if there is one thing I remember about Dans' old apartment, it's that the christmas lights that were strung around the living room always set the mood so nicely.

...that sounded a little gay. Not like, gay as in stupid, but like.. gay as in homosexual. Oh well.

Hopefully soon I'll have my room all together and I can start having people over to hang out and chew the fat or whatever. Listen to music, watch movies or T.V. shows (we have Netflix on the Xbox 360, which is awesome!) or get wasted or whatever. I just want people to feel comfortable with coming over here to hang out whenever. I dunno.

What else...

Cha, cha, chaaaaa...

The only class I'm worried about this semester is again Spanish class.. my other classes will be hard but Spanish is like a fucking EVERY night thing if you want to do well. Sucks, man.

I miss the summer-time already.. seeing my friends and going out every night. But I guess school is pretty important, and will only make the time I have off that more special.

I played some piano at a friends house last night and listened to some piano playing.. and.. I really wish I were a concert pianist. I need to get some kind of keyboard and start learning pieces because playing piano and piano players are awesome, and I want to be awesome too.

This was pretty pointless, when I started writing this I swear it was going to be pretty pointful... I knew I had something to talk about but I forgot it. Maybe next time.

Listen to that song at the top, man.

new stuffs

2009-09-02T21:30:00.002-04:00

So the fall semester has started, and so far it's been extremely frustrating trying to re-adjust to the school life. This summer was just so action packed pretty much every single night that it's hard to get back into being alone all the time. Which is another thing I'm getting used to, because I just moved into my dads house where I have much more alone time to study and just be with my self, but it does get very lonely... I suppose I'll get used to it though, or at least find a way to make it less lonely here. But, trying to adjust to living here and the first week of class (buying books and all that... >:( ) all at the same time is just so much to get used to.. but I'll do it eventually.

Here's the classes I'm taking this semester if anyone was wondering...

U.S. History: Formative period
Spanish 2
Basic Learning Processes
Intro to Philosophy
Music as a World Phenomenon

All my profs seem pretty cool, it's just a pretty heavy work load.. hope I'm still able to get out some nights and do things... oh yeah, no class/work on fridays, so people.. Thursday and Friday nights... lets do stuff.

So.. sorry anyone if it seems like I'm withdrawing myself from society, but I'm not trying to. Between that class load and around 30 hours a week at work, free time is hard to come by before 9:00pm, and then I usually have to do homework type of stuff.

It'll get better though...

...right?

...right... Matt?

Yeah... sure will, champ.

but i know i'm not gooooood enough, know i'm not gooooood enough for yooooouu

2009-08-19T11:24:00.003-04:00

but no one gets what they really want
and love only when it's convenient
we act like we know more than we know
treat love like it's something you own

but maybe i'll find you
maybe i'll find something i love
maybe i'll find you
maybe i'll find something i love

we are the only ones we are running from

2009-08-01T23:26:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been interesting.

I got to hang out with my friend Chris earlier tonight, his brother Steve just passed away a few days back... and Chris showed up at my house just to hang out, get out of the house. He said he hasn't really had anything to eat for the past 4 days, so we went out to get some food at BW3s and then to the bar. We cheers'd to Steve, and I'm so glad we did. I actually cheers'd to Steve the night before with my friend Jamie, but it still felt great to do it with Chris, the brother.

It's crazy how something so simple can really help you come to terms, deal with and put closure on something just a little bit more. I've been really broken up about Steve the past couple days, and of course I will be for some time, or forever when I think about him, but just in the general aspect of the situation, I feel much more at ease to know that his brother and one of my best friends, Chris, is able to come out and see me and others for comfort and companionship.

I've really learned a lesson from Steve's passing though, as I hope everyone has, and that is that you really need to look after your friends, because they're the ones that are really going to be there for you when you need it. Steve (and Chris) was just such a selfless guy, he would go completely out of his way to do anything for anyone, despite what would happen to him. You really can't ask for a better pair of brothers, and it's just too bad he had to go too soon. They're both just the types of guys that would sit with you one on one and have a beer, chat and make sure everything's okay. It seems like it's getting harder and harder to find people that will hang out in smaller numbers, such as one on one, anymore. It always needs to be a big group of people for anyone to want to do anything, and fuck that. One time Chris came over after midnight with a 6 pack of Bud Light and we just drank and looked at the sky through my telescope, just to hang out, and I'm sure Steve would do the same.

It's just too bad, man.

Shit really shouldn't happen the way it does sometimes, but what're you gonna do? Ya know?

Other than that... shit has been shit.

Been bike riding and trying to enjoy my paid vacation, which has been real hard to do.

Still going out too much and spending too much money, but fuck it. I'll be taking 5 classes in the fall and won't have time for much of anything else aside from school, so I need to try and do what I can while I can, I guess.

People really do need to be able to understand and appreciate what they're told, given, or put in front of. I guess I'm just at that stage right now where most of the people that I know and hang out with aren't old enough for it. Hell, maybe I'm even not. But if I'm not, I'm at least willing and mature enough to admit it.

Fuck it.

the sky had fallen on him

2009-07-30T14:59:00.001-04:00

...His hold on her tightened, as though he was suddenly aware of the fragility of happiness, how chancy it was and how easily lost.

fuck.

great, just great.

2009-07-28T15:45:00.002-04:00

It's ridiculously hot in my room.

I can't harvest the nerve to tell my mom I want to move in with my dad.

All my attempts with the females are pointless.

I'm on vacation from work and sit around doing nothing, wishing I was at work just to be doing something.

One of my good friends died this morning.

---

Things are going pretty great.

Pitty party for me.

bbq pulled porn.

2009-07-04T02:09:00.001-04:00

me: yeah pulled pork takes a bit haha

mikey: yeah, but its soooo worth every second (so long as you don't ruin it with phony bbq sauce

mikey: im a big rub fan when it comes to bbq

mikey: porn anyway

mikey: pork**

mikey: damn

mikey: haha

mikey: lmfao

the new year

2009-06-30T16:21:00.003-04:00

i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that could hold us back

thin red lines

2009-06-24T02:21:00.000-04:00

john: yeh i was watchin thin red line earlier

me: haha i saw that

john: lol

me: i have passed through this night

john: weird eye was the first to pass through

john: and the last

if all else fails

2009-06-21T22:51:00.001-04:00

and all turns to dust
set sail on a ship built from trust

if all else fails
when all starts to rust
set sail on a ship built for us

Pat Havas

2009-06-19T13:43:00.003-04:00

Had his 21st birthday last night.

The night was definitely... interesting?

The best part was that Pats' father came out with us, who could totally pass for one of us. I think that Tom has found the fountain of youth. It was totally awesome.

We did our job though, and got Pat completely shit-faced. I think that his best quote from the night that he actually had to repeat about 5 times was "Dude! Let's go follow that guys!" and then he just repeated "that guys" over and over because he knew how ridiculous it was, even though he was wasted.

Ran into a bunch of cock eating faggorts at one bar that I had hoped to never see again, but I guess you'll have that from time to time te time time. I know it may be kind of asshole-ish of me, but seeing them makes me feel so much better about myself. Yeah, go team self-esteem!

It was a good night though, I suppose. Buncha stupid stuff happened, but by the time I got home, hung out for a bit and had fallen asleep I was pretty happy with the night.

It was a whole thing.

I like my coffee like I like my...

2009-06-16T10:40:00.003-04:00

president.

black.

I have two bottles of wine

2009-06-08T21:28:00.002-04:00

Hidden in my room somewhere right now, and I can't figure out if I want a glass or not. It's a normal (boring) Monday night and I think I'm just going to sit at home alone, play some music and watch a few movies that I downloaded recently. John says they're pretty good, and he's surely a reliable source.

The biggest and most monumental thing that I have to talk about right now is that DAN FINALLY LIVES IN STOW AGAIN AND ISN'T BEING TREATED LIKE SHIT EVERY SINGLE DAY ANYMORE! WOO! John and I spent an evening recently helping our good friend Dan move out of his house. It was a pretty good time, I drove my moms sweet van (transformer) around to move some of the big stuff. There's really nothing better than driving around your moms minivan while playing "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster". It was just so random that he was moving out, he called me right after I got off work and was like "hey brah you wanna help me move out" and I'm all like "lol wut" and he's like "yeah". It's pretty sweet, no more driving to Randolph and no more shitshitshitshitshit.

I think I have a new obsession (addiction if you will), and that is listening to audio-books while riding my bike. It would be cool to ride around and chat with people, but since those people don't want to be friends anymore and hang out or ride bikes or anything(ahem, you know who you are), the audio-books will have to do. It's alright though. I'm trying it out with one of my favorite books of all time, The Sun Also Rises, because I've wanted to re-read it for some time now but my damn ex-girlfriend never gave it back to me, and when I did ask for it back it was just a whole thing and I said fuck it.

I got really drunk last night and I never want to drink again (I say that now). I hate the way I feel the next day after I drank, and it's not even anything physical. It's like, since I've started working out a lot and riding my bike like a madman I just haven't had any desire to drink, and when I do I just feel like I'm regressing back to some kind of shit that I don't want to be in. A glass of wine or 2 is fine here and there, because I love wine and I don't feel like I'm a waste of life after a few glasses. Hell, I may even have a glass of this sauvignon blanc a little later.

I'm going to see Isis and Pelican tomorrow with Brandon, which should be FUCKING AWESOME. Brandon is always a fun guy to hang out with and good guy to talk to about things. Should be a good show, aside from the shit acoustics and sound system at The Grog Shop, but both bands are mainly instrumental, so we'll see how it goes. I'm expecting a good time out of the show and the time before and after the show. Science knows that last time was fucking awesome. I'm not going to recap the whole thing, but one thing needs to be mentioned: When we got back to JBs car (the guy that drove to The Appleseed Cast) we had found that someone puked IN A ZIPLOCK BAG and then proceeded to THROW IT AT JBS CAR. Obviously that was an extremely shitty thing for that person to do, but it was still one of the most ridiculous things that I think has ever happened. I suggested that maybe since the parking meter had run out a bit before we got back to the car, that maybe instead of giving tickets in that area they throw bags of puke on your car instead. I dunno, it's just a hypothesis that needs tested.

The days have just been so packed lately, with work and all. Shit shifts have been wasting all the would-be-productive daytime. What I'm getting to here is that I really need to start recording music more. I really want to see how this new song I wrote turns out, I love playing the song so much, and I want people to hear it and tell me what they think. It's just that, the way things seem to work out with me, is that they don't work out. There always has to be something, some little thing that just gets in the way and fucks everything up. But hopefully things will be looking up soon.

Things can't always be shit, right?

Time to go see if I want that glass of wine or not. Time to go watch these movies I was talking about. Time to go relax and just hope for an awesome day tomorrow. Time to just not give a fuck anymore and just do things that need to be done. (hopefully?)

I dunno.

Whatevvvvvvvvvv

losing touching searching

2009-06-03T15:01:00.004-04:00

Today is a big day, a real big day. I'm finally going to see one of my absolute favorite bands (The Appleseed Cast) in the world at The Grog Shop. Tickets were only 8 fucking dollars too, you can't beat that. I hope the sound is pretty good, I've only ever been to one other show at The Grog Shop and I don't really remember how the sound was.

I can honestly say, and I don't know how it works like this, but this bands music has had such a huge influence on just my solo acoustic stuff and my outlook on music in general. I guess it's just the little memorable and minimalistic melodies that they really emphasize on. It should be an interesting day though, I'm heading up there with Dan, Brandon and JB. So, obviously it will make for a splendid time. I'm actually going to pick Dan up here shortly, so I'm going to stop rambling about The Appleseed Cast and post what I originally made this post for.

This song is the first song I heard from The Appleseed Cast and it's what really got me into them, so check it out and maybe you'll get into them too. The song is called Losing Touching Searching and it's off the album Two Conversations. Ch-ch-check it out: BOOM!

And here are the lyrics if you don't want to listen. Lyrics have always been a huge thing for me when it comes to music, and I think the awesomeness of the lyrics by The Appleseed Cast is one of the major factors that draws me to them.

---
There's no sign; there's no chance we'll get there on time. We couldn't find the place that night. We were lost and stuck together. We were lost with ourselves, and we were lost with each other. Where's this place we need to be? Where's this place we need see? There's no sign; there's no chance we'll get there on time. If we could have found another place, to see ourselves and crack the code we could have made it then you know, but there's no signs on that road. Caught in this place we know, with no signs of letting go, you're heart is just another road, another place that I can't go, so we sit and contemplate, the world's become a big mistake, and here we are in the middle, trying to work out this riddle.
---

mmmmmmhm.

why not me?

2009-06-01T12:20:00.006-04:00

We looked at each other in the dark. I thought she was very beautiful and I took her hand. She let me take it and I held it and put my arm around under her arm.
"No," she said. I kept my arm where it was.
"Why not?"
"No."
"Yes," I said. "Please." I leaned forward in the dark to kiss her and there was a sharp stinging flash. She had slapped my face hard. Her hand had hit my nose and eyes, and tears came in my eyes from the reflex.
"I'm so sorry," she said. I felt I had a certain advantage.
"You were quite right."
"I'm dreadfully sorry," she said. "I just couldn't stand the nurse's-evening-off aspect of it. I didn't mean to hurt you. I did hurt you, didn't I?"
She was looking at me in the dark. I was angry and yet certain, seeing it all ahead like the moves in a chess game.
"You did exactly right,' I said. "I don't mind at all."
"Poor man."
"You see I've been leading a sort of funny life. And I never even talk English. And then you are so very beautiful." I looked at her.
"You don't need to say a lot of nonsense. I said I was sorry. We do get along."
"Yes," I said. "And we have gotten away from the war."
She laughed. It was the first time I had ever heard her laugh. I watched her face.
"You are sweet," she said.
"No I'm not."
"Yes. You are a dear. I'd be glad to kiss you if you don't mind."
I looked in her eyes and put my arm around her as I had before and kissed her. I kissed her hard and held her tight and tried to open her lips; they were closed tight. I was still angry and as I held her suddenly she shivered. I held her close against me and could feel her heart beating and her lips opened and her head went back against my hand and then she was crying on my shoulder.
"Oh, darling," she said. "You will be good to me, won't you?"
What the hell, I thought. I stroked her hair and patted her shoulder. She was crying.
"You will, won't you?" She looked up at me. "Because we're going to have a strange life."

---Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

For fucks sake, why not me?

when the trees meet the sun

2009-05-30T09:20:00.003-04:00

So what's been up you say, Blogger? Lets see..

I've been working out and riding my bike a whole lot, and I'm happy to say that it really is making me feel great. It's funny how the more exercise I get in a day the less I want to drink or do other destructive things to my body that night. Well, with an exception for last night. I went on one of the longest bike rides yet this summer, and after wards I ate some of the WORST Chinese food I've ever had. I don't know what it was, this place really wasn't too bad in the past, but last night it was pretty much just a shit-buffet. I'm pretty sure that I took a bite of something radioactive. It was called a "Butter Cob Corn" and I think all that was in it was decaying plutonium. I'm paying for it now though, if you know what I mean. I think I may go on a bike ride before work today to try and get out any remains. I guess I deserve it though, you NEVER go to a Chinese buffet when there are only two other tables in the room. Hell, I'm never going to a Chinese buffet again unless the table I get sat at is the only table open. But, anyways...

I got off work this coming Wednesday to go and see one of my absolute favorite bands of all time, The Appleseed Cast. For 8 DOLLARS. It should be an awesome time. The music will be enough to make it awesome but I'm also going with some pretty awesome people. (right, Brandon?)

I really need to start getting into using my recording equipment more... I bought all this stuff and it's just sitting there. I think the motivation is coming soon though. I just finished a new song last night that I really want to try and record. A little preview:

We've got no time left
Burn this city down
Plant upon the ashes
The trees will meet the sun

If I get it recorded I'll post all the lyrics and a link to the audio. I hope to do that a lot on here, record songs and post them, hopefully get some feedback.

Well, that Chinese food is just about on its way out. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it for the next few days I'm sure, after a meal like that.

p.s. this was a pretty pointless post, no?

A Letter to the Six Billionth Person

2009-05-28T14:58:00.003-04:00

So, I found this essay earlier and I liked it so much that I'm going to post it here so that you all can read it. Hopefully give someone a little something to think about...

I'm in no way taking any credit for this essay, it was written by the great novelist and essayist Sir Salman Rushdie.

Tell me what you think about it, I'd love to hear what you have to say. It's really not that long, just read it.

---

A Letter to the Six Billionth Citizen

Dear little Six - Billionth Living Person: As one of the newest members of a notoriously inquisitive species, it probably won't be too long before you start asking the two $64,000 questions with which the other 5,999,999,999 of us have been wrestling for some time.
How did we get here? And, now that we are here, how shall we live?

Oddly - as if six billion of us weren't enough to be going on with - it will almost certainly be suggested to you that the answer to the question of origins requires you to believe in the existence of a further, invisible, innefable Being "somewhere up there", an omnipotent creature whom we poor limited creatures are unable even to perceive, much less to understand. That is, you will be strongly encouraged to imagine a heaven, with at least one god in residence.

This sky god, it's said, made the universe by churning its matter in a giant pot. Or, he danced. Or, he vomited creation out of himself. Or, he simply called it into being, and lo, it Was. In some of the more interesting creation stories, the singly mighty sky god is subdivided into many lesser forces - junior dieties, avatars, gigantic metamorphic "ancestors" whose adventures create the landscape, or the whimsical, wanton, meddling, cruel pantheons of the great polytheisms, whose wild doings will convince you that the real engine of creation was lust; for infinite power, for too easily broken human bodies, for clouds of glory. But it's only fair to add that there are also stories which offer the message that the primary creative impulse was, and is, love.

Many of these stories will strike you extremely beautiful, and therefore seductive. Unfortunately, however, you will not be required to make a purely literary response to them. Only the stories of dead religions can be appreciated for their beauty. Living religions require much more of you. So you will be told that belief in "your" stories, and adherence to the rituals of worship that have grown up around them, must become a vital part of your life in the crowded world. They will be called the heart of your culture, even of your individual identity.

It is possible that they may at some point come to feel inescapable, not in the way that the truth is inescapable, but in the way that a jail is. They may at some point cease to feel like the texts in which human beings have tried to solve a great mystery, and feel, instead, like the pretexts for other properly anointed human beings to order you around. And it's true that human history is full of the public oppression wrought by the charioteers of the gods.
In the opinion of religious people, however, the private comfort that religion brings more than compensates for the evil done in its name.

As human knowledge has grown, it has also become plain that every religious story ever told about how we got here is quite simply wrong. This, finally, is what all religions have in common. They didn't get it right. There was no celestial churning, no maker's dance, no vomiting of galaxies, no snake or kangaroo ancestors, no Valhalla, no Olympus, no six-day conjuring trick followed by a day of rest. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

But here's something genuinly odd. The wrongness of the sacred tales hasn't lessened the zeal of the devout in the least. If anything, the sheer out-of-step zaniness of religion leads the religious to insist ever more stridently on the importance of blind faith.

As a result of this faith, by the way, lt has proved impossible, in many parts of the world, to prevent the human race's numbers from swelling alarmingly. Blame the overcrowded planet at least partly on the misguidedness of the races spiritual guides. In your own lifetime, you may witness the arrival of the nine billionth world citizen.

(If too many people are being born as a result, in part, of religious strictures against birth control, then too many people are also dying because religious culture, by refusing to face the facts of human sexuality, also refuses to fight against sexually transmitted diseases.)

There are those who say that the great wars of the new century will once again be wars of religion, jihads and crusades, as they were in the Middle Ages. I don't believe them, or not in the way they mean it. Take a look at the Muslim world, or rather the Islamist world, to use the word coined to describe Islam's present day "political arm". The divisions between its great powers (Afghanistan against Iran against Iraq against Saudi Arabia against Syria against Egypt) are what strike you most forcefully. There's very little resembling a common purpose. Even after the non-Islamic NATO fought a war for the Muslim Kosovan Albanians, the Muslim world was slow in coming forward with much needed humanitarian aid.

The real wars of religion are the wars religions unleash against ordinary citizens within their "sphere of influence." They are wars of the godly against the largely defenceless - American fundamentalists against pro-choice doctors, Iranian mullahs against their country's Jewish minority, Hindu fundamentalists in Bombay against that city's increasingly fearful Muslims.

The victors in that war must not be the closed-minded, marching into battle with, as ever, God on their side. To choose unbelief is to choose mind over dogma, to trust in our humanity instead of all these dangerous divinities. So, how did we get here? Don't look for the answer in story books. Imperfect human knowledge may be a bumpy, pot-holed street, but it's the only road to wisdom worth taking. Virgil, who believed that the apiarist Aristaeus could spontaneously generate new bees from the rotting carcess of a cow, was closer to a truth about origins than all the revered old books.

The ancient wisdoms are modern non-senses.

Live in your own time, use what we know and, as you grow up, perhaps the human race will finally grow up with you and put aside childish things. As the song says, "It's easy if you try."

As for mortality, the second great question - how to live? What is right action, and what wrong?- it comes down to your willingness to think for yourself. Only you can decide if you want to be handed down the law by priests, and accept that good and evil are somehow external to ourselves.

To my mind, religion - even at its most sophisticated - essentially infantalizes our ethical selves by setting infallible moral Arbiters and irredeemably immoral Tempters above us; the eternal parents, good and bad, light and dark, of the supernatural realm.

How, then, are we to make ethical choices without a divine rulebook or judge? Is unbelief just the first step on the long slide into the brain death of cultural relativism, according to which many unbearable things - female circumcision, to name just one - can be excused on culturally specific grounds, and the universality of human rights, too can be ignored?
(This last piece of moral unmaking finds supporters in some of the world's most authoritarian regimes, and also, unnervingly, on the editorial page of the Daily Telegraph,UK.)

Well, no, it isn't, but the reasons for saying so aren't clear-cut. Only hard-line ideology is clear-cut. Freedom, which is the word I use for the secular-ethical position, is inevitably fuzzier. Yes, freedom is that space in which contradiction can reign, it is a never-ending debate. It is not in itself the answer to the question of morals, but the conversation about that question. And it is much more than mere relativism, because it is not merely a never-ending talk show, but a place in which choices are made, values defined and defended.

Intellectual freedom, in European history, has mostly meant freedom from the restraints of the Church and not the state.

This is the battle Voltaire was fighting, and it's also what all six billion of us could do for ourselves, the revolution in which each of us could play our small, six-billionth part; once and for all we could refuse to allow priests, and the fictions on whose behalf they claim to speak, to be the policemen of our liberties and behavior. Once and for all we could put the stories back into the books, put the books back on the shelves, and see the world undogmatized and plain.

Imagine there's no heaven, my dear Six-Billionth, and at once the sky's the limit.
-Salman Rushdie

Chewbaccaaaaaa!

2009-05-27T01:05:00.002-04:00

Okay, I have to post this because I don't think that I've laughed this hard about something in a while. I think I'm going to prescribe this to patients if I decide that I want to be a therapist one day: this video is too much.

That's about it. Oh..

Update: The new Dredg album is incredible, the music, lyrics and concept are so amazingly well done. New Dream Theater album is great too, A Rite of Passage and Wither are great. Great bike riding music.

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...

Oh, memorial day.

2009-05-25T23:39:00.004-04:00

I'm really not going to say anything about Memorial Day aside from posting a link that StumbleUpon gave me the other day, oddly just in time for Memorial Day. I'm not saying that I agree with this the political view points of this lady, but it's just an interesting twist on the whole thing. Pretty sad story too, so if you need just that slightest kick of depression check it out: Here.

Aside from that, I think I had a few things to address when I started writing.. ah yes. How could I have forgotten:

And don't forget...

I'm actually still mid-first-listen of the new DT album, but of course so far it's just amazing. Aside from Mikey Portnoy trying to do vocals, this album is pretty badass. So far it's one of the heavier projects I've heard by DT but at least still has that technical touch, unlike (in my opinion) Train of Thought. Maybe I'll write more about this album later, but probably not. Just listen to it, it's not out yet but still, listen to it. Anything by DT is worth a single listen, at least.

The new dredg album though... by Science, I never expected it. Definitely has some heavier aspects to it, and is by far the most technical thing I've heard by them. I was actually pretty impressed by the song Long Days and Vague Clues. I'll need to listen to the album much more before I have a true opinion on it, but upon first listen it's fucking great. What do you expect of dredg though? I don't think they CAN write bad music.
Enough of this music talk. Listen to the albums, my opinion is a little biased because these are two of my favorite bands of all time, in other news:
---

I'm going to say it one more time because I think it's been said far too many times before, and what is more convincing than saying something over and over while you KNOW that everyone already knows? (Right, religious people?)

Most girls have absolutely no idea what is good for them. Keyword "most" anyone that got pissed at that statement. I mean, you can lay everything out in front of them, make it so blatantly obvious, but they will press on. Which I suppose is admirable, but frustrating nonetheless. No, that statement isn't placed in the direction of any one person, but brought upon because of a conversation I had earlier about ex-girlfriends and stuff. I just wish that I had the balls to do what my heart feels that I should do sometimes, no matter how strong I believe that I am, I just still have problems with that. I don't know, I'm going to go and try and enjoy this Dream Theater album without all this on my mind, hopefully leaving it here has enabled me to do that.

Maybe I haven't been as clear as I could have been, but E.E. Cummings will clear up how I feel perfectly for you:

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

---
Oh, E.E. Cummings, how did you write such perfect poems? Crazy how something someone else wrote can convey your feelings so well, but I guess that's humans for you:

let it go-the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise-let it go it
was sworn to
go
let them go-the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and the neithers-you must let them go they
were born
to go
let all go-the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things-let all go
dear
so comes love

I remember this..

2009-05-25T10:21:00.000-04:00

So, I used to have one of these blogspot thing.. until I had to delete it for reasons that are probably better shared here. It's really a shame though, I used to have so many writings on here that I'm sure I would enjoy to look back on (that was the reason I made one of these things). But I guess that just shows you once more how evil religion and religious people are... OH NO! I'VE SAID TOO MUCH!

...

I don't know what I'm going to write about this time around, it seems that I can't write about things that are on my mind/bothering me or else I'll be blackmailed.

I guess I could write about what's up.. which isn't much really. School is out now, I got some kind of 3.2-something this semester. I was hoping for at least a 3.5, but I'm not going to kill myself over it. So now I'm just working a lot, trying to enjoy the weather while I can and hopefully getting the inspiration/motivation to start recording more music soon. Pic related,It's not too bad of a microphone. What I've recorded with it so far doesn't sound all too bad, I was actually pretty surprised. If you want a sample of a recording I've done with it just let me know, I think my email is posted around here somewhere...

In other news, I ACCIDENTALLY hit a woodchuck on my bicycle last night, twice. I'm most over it now because I know that if this animal would have just evolved to be slightly more intelligent over the past million years or so, it wouldn't have been hit. Survival of the fittest, bitch. Obviously, my bike and I are much better suited for survival than you were. But I do feel terrible about it.

It's kind of nice to write, or.. blog again. I'm sure I'll be updating pretty often with the extra time that I have between working and riding my bike.

Laterrrrrrr