Obama's First Year

During his first year, president Obama appointed Dr. Steven Chu as the 12th Secretary of Energy, won a Nobel Peace prize, addressed threats, improved the relationship between the U.S and Venezuela, tried to open dialogue with the Muslim world, and made plans to move the troops from Iraq to Afghanistan among other things. Concerning the other issues, I think he just lacks support because it's impossible to please everyone.
With all the problems that this world has, I think he did okay for his first year...

Soccer

I want to say that I didn't completely suck at soccer. This was during freshman year, P.E class. I was on defense, but our team also had a four-person defense- which is probably against the rules so I don't know anymore.


Regarding the book, I think it is very interesting. I never thought that a game could cause so much violence. I was surprised when we saw the fight break out in that video. Sure the book describes some of it, but actually seeing the footage is different- especially when flare guns are used. now, that is some hardcore fandom.

Sports in my life

I never went out for sports. I just barely know how to play a few sports and that was because two years of P.E are required. I was never good at activities that required a high level coordination. Badminton and ping pong was the only exception. But even my skill in those two sports deteriorated with practice. For me, practice doesn't always make perfect. It just gets worse.

King Still King

I am assuming that this is supposed to be bout Martin Luther King(so that's what MLK stood for...). He was a great orator and was known for his work in the Civil Rights movement. He did many great things and was assassinated because some people didn't agree. He's still one of those important people and should be respected like we respect past presidents, Ghandi, or any other person who opened themselves up to attack and inconvenience to try and make a difference for those they didn't even know.

Never knew Chicago produces such artists...

Emilie Autumn and the Bloody Crumpets

EA
Emilie Autumn is an artist from Chicago who describes her music as "Victoriandustrial". She has a wide vocal range and plays the violin, harpsichord, piano, viola, viola da gamba, guitar, as well as vocals, but is mostly known for vocals, electric violin, and harpsichord. Emilie bakes the baked goods and makes the costumes they wear.

The Bloody Crumpets,her backing band, consists (usually) of The Naughty Veronica-a burlesque dancer, Aprella-a ballerina, and two circus performers-Captain Maggot and The Blessed Contessa.


About life, style, and inspiration
Emilie is the daughter of a seamstress and grew up in a costume store around alternative dress. She is a history buff, admires Shakespeare, and admires the fashion of the Elizabethian age and the Victorian era.

Since childhood she was plagued with voices in her head that made sleeping difficult. She would play classical music and compose music in her head to drown out the voices. At one point she was put under suicide watch (bipolar), driven mad, and and was raped by a doctor there.


Opheliac Album
An opheliac is someone who is driven mad-just as Hamlet's Ophelia was. Her songs are mostly about revenge, misery, and suicide. She wrote these songs and tells her story as a way to get revenge for what has been done to her. Despite the morbid lyrics, some of the songs have happy sounding music- especially "Marry Me".

Opheliac
I'm your Opheliac
I've been so disillusioned
I know you'd take me back
But still I feign confusion
I couldn't be your friend
My world was too unstable
You might have seen the end

But you were never able
To keep me breathing
As the water rises up again
Before I slip away

You know the games I play
And the words I say
When I want my own way
You know the lies I tell
When you've gone through hell
And I say I can't stay
You know how hard it can be
To keep believing in me
When everything and everyone
Becomes my enemy and when
There's nothing more you can do
I'm gonna blame it on you
It's not the way I want to be
I only hope that in the end you will see
It's the Opheliac in me

I'm your Opheliac
My stockings prove my virtues
I'm open to attack
But I don't want to hurt you
Whether I swim or sink
That's no concern of yours now
How could you possibly think
You had the power to know how
To keep me breathing
As the water rises up again
Before I slip away

You know the games I play
And the words I say
When I want my own way
You know the lies I tell
When you've gone through hell
And I say I can't stay
You know how hard it can be
To keep believing in me
When everything and everyone
Becomes my enemy and when
There's nothing more you can do
I'm gonna blame it on you
It's not the way I want to be
I only hope that in the end you will see
It's the Opheliac in me

Studies show:
Intelligent girls are more depressed
Because they know
What the world is really like
Don't think for a beat it makes it better
When you sit her down and tell her
Everything gonna be all right
She knows in society she either is
A devil or an angel with no in between
She speaks in the third person
So she can forget that she's me

Doubt thou the stars are fire
Doubt thou the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt
Doubt thou the stars are fire
Doubt thou the sun doth move
Doubt truth to be a liar
But never doubt I love

You know the games I play
And the words I say
When I want my own way
You know the lies I tell
When you've gone through hell
And I say I can't stay
You know how hard it can be
To keep believing in me
When everything and everyone
Becomes my enemy and when
There's nothing more you can do
I'm gonna blame it on you
It's not the way I want to be
I only hope that in the end you will see
It's the Opheliac in me

Thankful for a classmate

I think everyone contributes something that makes second period interesting. I must say that I especially appreciate Eben's presence. Really, this chick never ceases to amaze me (xD I just called you a chick). At eight o’ clock in the morning, I would very much rather be sleeping and/or plotting world domination. Having school at this hour makes it worse and I become irritable. That is usually cured when I hear her make an odd-but-funny comment or see an adorable cat wanting fish or the cute non-human looking mad doodled in her unique style of drawing. They brighten up my morning significantly and make school a bit more tolerable. I forget things often, and she's not much help, but I don't feel as alone when she does the same.

Letter

I really enjoyed The Road. Throughout the book, I kept wondering when the father was going to crack. I was surprised he never did. It showed that good people can still exist even when the world is at such a terrible state. Surely the man could have just thrown away his morals like most of the other people, just eat the boy, and join the other cannibals. Life would have been easier and he wouldn't have had to go through the trouble of looking after the boy and risking his life. I actually found it inspiring: To "carry the fire" even when the world turns on you. It is the sacrifice of the good. This story of the father and the boy constantly reminds me to be a better person when I want to give up and be as selfish as I please. I will carry the fire.

Direction the class needs

I don't think the class needs a new direction. I find everything so far to be interesting. I especially enjoy the spontaneous discussions. I find out more about y''all's views on issues and find that some still have hope- which is important:it becomes contagious.

Defend the Poet

I actually really liked this poem. I guess it was supposed to be depressing, but I couldn't help but laugh at how everything progresses and how true it was- at the irony of life. I was really surprised that this wasn't a more recent poem and wondered how he predicted all of these events. What did the people think of him back then? What do they think of him now, that they have witnessed the tragedies and events claim lives?

Borders and wars

I think it would be nice if the world wasn't so divided up. This territorial thing is a bit annoying. After all, what gave us the right to take over someone else's home? Just because we have the capability, doesn't mean we should invade. The only wars to be fought should be between planets- us against aliens... ok, we'd be shamefully obliterated, but at least we would all be united.

How do I know what I know?

I don't know what I know... huh?

How do I even start explaining this?
It is a known fact that the earth is spherical(real word?). That's just the way we see it. But, there may be something up with human eyes that distorts everything we see.
It's like telling a woman/man born blind that a Domo cup is brown. This is may or may not be exclusive to me, but if I was the blind one, I, of course, can't see it. I would understand that that piece of information is a claim. It may be what this person sees, so it's a truth- to him/her. It could be a lie and it's really black.

To me, nothing is certain; everything is a claim because it can be a lie or an untruth. A lot depends on perception and perception is different from person to person, place to place, species to species, so I try to avoid assuming anything.

Our Meaning... come it's nearly tea time, the lunatics arrive

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure." -Agent Smith, The Matrix

Being the way I am, I have, for most of my life, seen the human species as the true vermin of earth. I have lost faith in humanity ages ago(excepting few). Really, how many species will do this to their own home? Humans are supposedly the most intelligent species on planet Earth, yet we race to our own extinction, knowingly, in or merry little hummers. Sounds like suicide to me.



"If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth survives. There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life..." - Klatu, The day the Earth Stood Still

I pretty much live by this. I used to joke about the aliens coming to fix things. Then, I saw "The day the Earth Stood Still".



Perhaps our purpose is being some type of planet cleaners. Our entire existence may only be like a few minutes to aliens and we clear the planet of all life, leaving the planet to them to do as they please. The abducted humans are like test subjects to genetically modify to adapt to other planets that need to be cleared, and then they breed us to clear the other planets... Sort of a passing thought, didn't think further than that.

A tad too depressing? I don't think so, a bit hilarious if you find the right light to look at it in. Yeah, the asylum doctors are coming for me...

God in 2009

The idea of "God" always makes me wonder about the god in each religion. I always thought that everyone believes in the same one, but just have different characteristics from religion to religion. That is a bit hard to explain. It all has to do with perspective. Say, there is one person (God). Now, all the pathetic humans look up to this God and see a different side of him/her. So now, they all think that their god is a different being when, really, there's only one. That probably doesn't make sense...

God in 2009. I am going to assume that this post is supposed to be about how people view God in 2009. When I am on the computer, digging around in forums and such places, I occasionally come across “96% of teens won't stand up for God. Put this on your page if you're one of the 4% who will.” or something else of that nature in someone’s signature, page, profile, etc. I know that that number isn’t accurate and that it changes from time to time, but it really makes me wonder about the real percentage. I think that “96% of teens won't stand up for God. Put this on your page if you're one of the 4% who will.” implies that it is “not cool” for people to believe in God, and that those who are believers, should be proud. In my opinion, it labels individuals and gives an impression.

Candide’s Punishments, Do the Fit the Crime?

If it was just a Kiss
The book says that Candid and Cunegonde kissed and that their hands strayed. I think that the punishment was disproportionate to the crime if this is all that happened. I think that getting kicked out of the castle was a bit extreme for kissing since it has no noticeable negative effect on the others. Also, The two characters, Candide and Cunegonde, seemed like they were of age to make their own choices. I guess that in that time in history, the custom/tradition was not like that of today's and people were more conservative back then.
Did Cunegonde get punished? All she ended up with was boxed ears. I think that she is at as much fault as Candide is. She should have also have been kicked out of the castle.

If it was more than just a kiss
If the book implied that it was more than a kiss, then I think that both Candide and Cunegonde should have been kicked out. If they were doing something more extreme, for an example, fornicating, then I think that have been kicked out for being indecent. After all, this took place in a very accessible area- behind a screen, right after leaving the dining table.

Modern Gadfly

According to Wikipedia, a Gadfly is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or just being an irritant. I honestly can't think of any specific one person that would fit this definition. I do think that there are many people who could be considered a gadfly. I think that anyone who appears on the news might be a gadfly since they had to have done something strange to get on the news. I also think that the occasional dude on a motorcycle zooming by and disturbing the peace is a gadfly. The tree-huggers, extremists, activists, authors of rarely read books, crazies locked in the asylum, and protestors, in my opinion, are also gadflies as they do things that aren't socially accepted by the general everyone else. They are also irritating and anything they say usually causes some chaos. Even the vegans and vegetarians are probably gadflies. There always seems to be a crowd of people saying that they hate vegetarians and vegans, that "Meat tastes good so just eat it! Everyone else eats it". Now that I think about it, I think that I, myself, am a gadfly- just not a well known one.

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

I do not completely agree that the unexamined life is not worth living. Everyone has a purpose and so everyone’s life is worth living. But I also think that failing to examine your life is a waste. Looking back at on your life can help you in the future. Wrong actions, decisions, and behavior from the past can teach what shouldn’t be repeated. What makes life worth living anyway? I think that the answer varies from person to person.

Eulogy

Dearest guests, I welcome you to my funeral.

Since I am now dead, I can’t be bothered to apologize to anyone expecting what I consider a normal eulogy.

Worry not, for I would rather not be mourned, but remembered and esteemed. Being celebrated is preferred since sorrow is a terrible way to waste time that can never be regained. I have embraced death; never feared it. I lived my life with no regrets.

Throughout my life I have fought for my freedom, severed ties, reconnected with nature, sacrificed, and sought strength. My methods were questioned, criticized, and misunderstood. That led to greater hardship and therefore greater strength. To anyone trying to understand my choices, I promise that there is a method in my madness.

I would like to leave you with the following thoughts that plagued my mind in hope that it will do someone somewhere some good. I never liked to preach a lifestyle, but this is an exception.
Death is the only thing guaranteed in life.
You shouldn’t assume and you should not judge.
Our soulless vessels are meant to return to the earth. They should not be tainted with anything that can harm any life form.
Strength is born from heartbreak”
You cannot eat or drink money. Greed only offers immediate rewards that wear away all too soon, while selflessness pays off in the long run.
Ignorance may be bliss, but it may also be a bloody torturous hell for those ignored and neglected.
Not all is as it seems.
Live responsibly.

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