Jump to content

GMan

Premier Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,424

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by GMan

  1. GMan

    "green" Funerals

    By GMan,

    You know what I'm talking about. Biodegradable coffins, no formaldehyde stuff, more ecological burial, etc, general environmental welfare stuff. So if people are gonna go with coffins that break down shortly, and without any sort of thing to slow down decomposition, this means their bodies will decay, rot, and become one with the Earth much faster. So has anybody thought about the potential for abusing this? I mean, you could somebody who has it in their will that they want a green funeral in a non-conspicuous manner, and they'd be buried, and the body would be too decayed to determine the cause of death or whatnot from by the time anybody got suspicious. Geez. Another case of humanity not thinking things over.
  2. GMan

    Aftermath

    By GMan,

    The dysfunctional relatives have left. One of my cousins proved he had not changed from the grubby eat beast he was in the intervening span of four months since we had last seen him, and their beagle is a very...... "innovative" gift giver. I went to the Pats/Dolphins game the other day with my dad, one of the three logical relatives who were here (my uncle), and his son, the aforementioned troublemaker. It was fun watching the Dolphins get canned with the tuna, but the cousin is a braggart, bully, and a tad sociopathic. He could not stop bragging about his knowledge of Israel, Hebrew, the Cleveland Browns (the relatives were visiting from Ohio), and various other things, especially on the way to and from the game. He bullies his little brother a lot. His little brother is pretty hyperactive, and likes sports, and my mom and I theorize that it may be his way of getting back at his brother, because he does seem to be tired of being little and picked on. I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with my grandfather, particularly since I'm worried about his short-term memory problems. However, it was nice to see one of my cousins, the oldest one visiting, again, coz she lives very far from where my family usually visits in Ohio, and so we hardly ever see her.
     
    On the bright side, I gots me a cell phone! But more importantly, two DC Elseworlds publications: Superman: Red Son and Gotham By Gaslight. Woot!
     
     
    And I saw a friend of mine yesterday. He came over with his sister (who is a friend of my sister) and we played Mario Party 8, watched The Simpsons Movie (he brought it over), and we watched some Mythbusters episodes, plus we did some general hanging out.
     
     
    And then my dad and I met with my dad's friend and his son (who is about my age), and we had a nice meal, chatted, went to a Barnes and Nobles, chatted some more, and then we said goodbye. We'll be seeing them again on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend. It'll be fun.
  3. GMan

    Merry Jingly

    By GMan,

    I wish you a Merry Quit-fighting-over-the-holidays-mas and I hope you don't have any dysfunctional relatives over at your house already filled with dysfunctional family for what is of course a very A Team dysfuntional Christmas.
  4. GMan

    Y'know...

    By GMan,

    ...I may be gloomydoomdoom sometimes, but I only disparage life's value because what there is to value about life is in short supply. Therefore, if one is not around for long, they do not have enough time to experience those things which are truly valuable about life but sadly in short supply. Or, if they are ignorant, they will not learn why these experiences must be appreciated.
     
    That's kind of one reason I don't like emo people, they go on and on whining about life being worthless and what not, but they don't even understand any original incentive for this reasoning as acknowledged by its originators, the people who understood why precisely factors of life might lack value.
  5. GMan

    Fanbases

    By GMan,

    You know how when a character is killed off or a big event happens, there's some sort of outrage in the fanbase? Fans riot and yell and make idiotic petitions, and bicker, and complain about how much the show sucks now, and all that jazz. And you know how some creators/writers/whoever cave in to demand and resurrect the character/strike the event from the official continuity? And then there's low sales or viewership? And then there are fans who are angry that the character was brought back/the event was struck from continuity? And they get all whiny and complainy?
     
    I call this the Whiny Ingrate Seesaw Dilemma. IE, something happens, complaints occur, that something is unhappened, more complaints occur from other people. When a faction of the fanbase gets what they want, they quiet down, thus leaving room for people of the opposite sentiment to start a riot. Or, when the faction is finished complaining so much and has gotten what they want, lots of people, now not busy with complaining, decide they do not like the change/reversal/fancy new thing/whatever, and join in with other complainers. I bet you can all remember specific occurences of this, particularly among if you read comic books.
  6. GMan

    Beowulf

    By GMan,

    I went and saw this with my dad on Saturday. I recommend that you see it, too. The CGI was FANTASTIC, and I could only tell the actors had been CGI'd in the beginning. Heck, even Grendel looked natural. The acting, of course, helped. The actors were convincing, realistic, and good performers (though the CGI probably helped brush it up). After the start, you kind of sink into the atmosphere the film sets up, and you can't turn your gaze away from the screen. It's engaging, highly. The plot was not the same as the original story, however, it compensated for that with good storytelling, humor, and of course the acting.
     
    Grendel was creepy, yay Crispin Glover for the good acting! Seriously scary, and a convincing monster. Special effects being used properly for the win! He was a malformed, insane, noise-sensitive, maaaaaagic, giant beastie of illicit heritage, and he looked completely realistic. And the fight scenes were fantastic, none of them were one-way or lame. Ray Winstone played the role of Beowulf FANTASTICALLY. Let me tell you, he seriously needs some awards for that. Angelina Jolie did a good job playing the role of Grendel's mother, I have to say. Though I would have loved to see the creepy golden monster form one kept seeing in the corners before she directly approached Grendel in humanoid form. Back to Ray Winstone: He filled out the role perfectly, and his acting was wonderful. Beowulf fit right into the movie, and Ray Winstone portrayed him exactly as a somewhat conceited, brave hero-warrior. Anthony Hopkins was a hoot as King Hrothgar, and did a bang-up job of showing the flip side of the king. John Malkovich, as Unferth, was a fountain of irony and plot bridgings. The servant he kept kicking around was a rather funny but horrifying gag (Remember kids, some kinds of physical contact are bad!). Brendan Gleeson played Wiglaf, the witty and sardonic (and heroic) sidekick. I loved Gleeson's role in the movie. Subverted the 'object in the background that spews one-liners every so often' stereotype for the sidekick type characters. Robin Wright Penn is a great actress, and her character was a character, not a soulless piece of property with good looks.
     
    Now, the plot. Ohhh, the plot. Lots of people probably didn't like how it changed around the plot to suit the movie better. However, I accept this as just being part of the process of making it, and I for one say it did not hurt the movie at all and helped weave it into a strong narrative construct that helped one enjoy the movie far more. The plot progressed smoothly and smartly, and as I said, the movie was engaging. It helped that there was an element of mystery as to what King Hrothgar's horrible misdeed that repulsed Wealhtheow (besides the fact that she probably didn't marry him willingly) that kept me speculating until finally the hints were strong enough to confirm what I thought. The action mixed well with the plot, carrying relevance and pacing. The plot regarding Beowulf's errors and owning up to them was tied in to everything else, helping, along with other elements, to create a spine for the story. The beginning, the middle, and end were all distinct, but all had smooth transitions.
     
    Also, all the jokes were great. Especially the rowdy warriors singing to attract the attention of Grendel.
  7. GMan

    Daww Nuts

    By GMan,

    Did you ever, after such a long period of time spent worrying and being indecisive, go forward with trying something new, and start trying to get used to it, and start making friends, and find your footing?
     
     
    And then, did you feel like you'd found such a wonderful new thing, that it was so incredible, so fun, so engrossing, that you loved it with all your heart?
     
     
    And did you want to be doing this forever, and to be a part of it, no matter what, because it was so fantastic and you had met so many nice people who you felt you could really relate to and talk to through it?
     
     
    And did you think about it in all your spare time, buoyed by your sheer awe at it, by how much you loved it?
     
     
    And did you really feel like you were getting into your groove so soon after you started, and that things were going great?
     
     
    And then, just as you felt you had found your footing, did it start to come crashing down by the whim of some outside force?
     
    And then, did you feel so confused at what was happening?
     
    And then, did you go to bed, thinking nothing of it in total, just chalking it up to the normal humdrum of life?
     
     
    And then, did you wake up, and did you find out everything had changed, had changed so terribly, that you were quaking on the inside, and you felt sheer terror and anger, and you felt even worse when you saw so many people taking sides and fighting, and did you realize it was just speeding up the worsening of it all?
     
    And did you struggle to keep yourself calm as you watched it progressively get worse?
     
    Did you ever watch something you loved die a horrible death?
     
     
    I'm not talking about BZP, no. Not at all, I promise you. Something else. Something else, trust me on this, all you people who I could swear read it just to report me.
     
     
    On the bright side, I got me some new comics!
  8. GMan

    My Weekend In Indy

    By GMan,

    (Reposted from a several-day-old PM)
     
     
    I went to my dad's place in Cambridge Friday night, and it was GREAT! We had a fun time there, and then Saturday morning, we flew out to Detroit, where we met up with my dad's friend and his son, for a connecting flight to Indianapolis, and we checked in at the hotel (Which was HUGE), and then we wandered around having a great time! Man... It felt like we spent three days instead of just half of Saturday in Indianapolis. I loved it... It made me feel good, it was like so many of the experiences I'm nostalgic for... Also, the Patriots have now won nine games, and lost none. It was a nailbiter of a game against the Colts, like one of those horror movies where the character you're rooting for keeps skirting death, but miraculously comes out on top in the end. And we flew home today. Man, I'm exhausted, but I still feel awesome.
     
    (now for new content)
     
    That was on Monday, people. Boston is such a pretty place at night, with all the water and lights... Indianapolis is like one big adventure, too.
     
    I went on a field trip to Fenway Park today! It was pretty neat, I'll tell you that. After that, since nobody had eaten since whenever in the morning, our bus (two homerooms per bus, and there are four homerooms on our team) stopped at McDonalds, while the other stopped at a Wendy's. But, Fenway is still pretty cool. WOO! And I have a day off on Monday, a field trip to the Museum of Science on Tuesday, and the class is just gonna be watching movies on Wednesday! YEEEHA!
  9. GMan

    I Am Sad.

    By GMan,

    My aunt and uncle who live out in Dayton, Ohio, had an eighteen year old cat named Maggie. She died yesterday. I am very sad. She was a very good kitty. I'mma go cry now.
  10. GMan

    Angry

    By GMan,

    Twice, I have tried writing an entry on Marvel's new Captain America, and the [insert incredibly offensive, vulgar, and disgusting word of choice here] power went out, both times. I am not amused by the antics of my local power company, nor by that of the weather or any other chance forces that may be guilty. I mean, I'm especially angry, because Mozilla Firefox has a 'Restore Session' thing for power outages and the like. But apparently while data in other entry fields will be saved, the info in a blog entry's 'Add Entry' thingy will not persevere a power outage. [insert incredibly offensive, vulgar, and disgusting word of choice here] power outages.
  11. GMan

    Gee, How Should I Put This?

    By GMan,

    I have something to relegate along the lead-poisoned veins of the interweb.
     
    Right when I was leaving school, literally, right as I was stepping out the door to where everybody waits for the buses, I saw a seventh grader I know, looking upset, with his hands over his throat, and a special ed teacher holding his backpack, standing there. I would never have known what was going on, had not the Social Studies teacher I had in seventh grade been right ahead of me, and the teachers conversed, and right as my foot hit the pavement outside, I heard the special ed teacher say the kid had tried to strangle himself. Morbidly enough, I was hardly surprised.
     
    The kid is a very odd, creepy person. I went to the same elementary school as him, and he lives on a street near mine, so he rides the same bus as I do. Thus, I've seen a lot of his akward, disturbing behavior over the years. He always has to be first on the bus-- He pushes anybody who might get on before him out of the way, and the bus driver has to remind him to wait for any high school students who might be getting off. In the bathroom, he always heads down to the very last stall, and in there, he makes high-pitched squealing and shrieking noises, jumps up and down, and other activities. He does this outside the stall, too, just with running around. Everybody's seen him do it at least once. He peeks under stalls, and crawls under locked ones.
     
    I can understand some of the kid's problems interacting with other people-- I've had them-- but for the most part, he scares me and everybody else. He doesn't know what 'personal space' and 'keep your hands to yourself' means, either. I have an afterschool group on Tuesdays that he goes to as well, and even the way he talks is creepy. I feel kind of sorry for him. Doesn't make me any more comfortable being near him, though. Boy, is it fun to be constantly anxious and bitter at the same time.
     
    Suffice to say, that was the most interesting part of my day. I hope the kid gets help.
  12. GMan

    Why Icarly Is Doomed

    By GMan,

    Yes, you heard me. The show is going to crash and burn soon. For, on the surface, it appears a legitimate, unique concept for a children's entertainment program. But its interactive factor is the key to its downfall. Nickelodeon has seen a drop in quality over the years, and when you combine that with an attempt to cash in on what were once underground, cool trends on the Internet, you can see a disaster waiting to happen. More traditional media is trying to subjugate new media formats, trying to bring them into their fold for new commercialization. For, you see, since iCarly depends on user-submitted content, which is then integrated into its trendy 'iCulture' theme, it will slip up. Despite all the legal forms and all the failsafes, and all the precautions, and all the double-checkers in the world, somebody will submit a video that is not their own, or something that copies an original (or worse yet, copyrighted work), and it will air on Nickelodeon. Youth, being drawn to the show because it imitates the home-grown productions one can find online, will notice, and then older people will notice, and it is likely that a lot of these older people will be people with technology blogs or something like that, who are watching the show to observe Nickelodeon's attempts at cashing in on online film stuff. They will post about it, and the news will get a hold on it. A media blitz will ensue. Nickelodeon will be brutalized with bad publicity. The show will come under scrutiny, and then demands for its cancellation. Miranda Cosgrove, the girl playing Carly, will have her reputation ruined. Lives will fall apart and lawsuits will ensue. You see? It's all too easy for somebody to use software to just rip an online video, and then pass it off as their own.
  13. GMan

    Makuta-related Question

    By GMan,

    Now that there are numerous other Makuta (and not just in speculation based on BoM info) that we know of, a dilemma faces us over the original Makuta. I've seen him referred to as 'The Makuta of Metru Nui', and this raised the question... What do we call the original Makuta now? Metrukuta? Matakuta? Makutanui? Makutui? Makutru? Makutata? Fish and a large serving of mousse? Trout Flint via Wall Street Oxymorons? Makumetrumatanuita? Shizzly home dawg? Medium-rare Communism, with a side of crispy Bolshevik? Metrumatakuta? Makutamatata, for the rest of your dayyyyyys! It's a problem-free, philosophy, Makutamatata!
  14. GMan

    Disenfranchisement Theory

    By GMan,

    GregF just posted on 2009 in his blog, and it put my mind into overdrive. It gave me a prediction on what will happen concerning fan reactions in 2009: Following a heavily flunctuating acceptance level from angry fans, 2008 will sharply divide the fans... There will be a sharp spike upward in the number of topics debating whether or not Bionicle now sucks. This will be reflected in topics going on about how 2004/5/6/whichever year occurring after 2003 that the member is biased in favor of managed not to suck, and how much 2008's sets suck and how that trend was reflected by other sucky years after 2003. By mid-year, things will simmer even more, only to tone down as the year draws to a close, only to be jacked up again by people complaining about how 2008's just leading into another sucky year, or a similar arguement. Therefore, by 2009, when the sets and storyline (which nobody's seen yet, mind you) are starting, numerous people will be biased against it. Diehard fans nostalgic for 2001 will leap out their windows screaming (you know who you are) while at the other end of the spectrum, raving fanboys will be falling to the floor writhing and screeching with manic glee, their brains being compounded into fluid by the sheer force of their awe (You know who you are, too). 2009, despite any changes or differences from any changes or differences in 2008 from 2007, will become a year full of bickering about the quality and direction of Bionicle.
     
    This comes from my theory of disenfranchisement in Bionicle, similarly born when I read Greg's entry. Disenfranchisement increases in years after 2003, beginning with turmoil over the Metru Nui plot. 2004 gives way to the much less popular 2005, then 2006 occurs and despite the masses of critics, it's more popular. Then 2007 sees a large return to an attitude that Bionicle has declined. 2008 will likely follow this path. It seems that disenfranchisement with Bionicle follows a track- Excluding the first three years, there is two years of heavy disenchantment with Bioncle, then the disenchantment drops some for one or two (often just one) years, then it resumes, stronger, for another two years, followed by a popular year or two again, then another two years of anger. The level of disappointment rises for several years, until it's at the 'Oh, can it get any worse' stage of opinion for most, then the next year calms them some because of how it differs from their predictions, then the next year, the critics resume their anger because of the changes. So yeah, it goes pretty much like this: Down down, up, down, down, up, and so on. Powered by the expectancies of fans and the pattern of disappointments or the lack thereof.
  15. GMan

    Crazy Dream About Msi

    By GMan,

    I overslept Friday morning... Not enough to come anywhere close to missing the bus, but I woke up at 5:53 AM, instead of my preferred time of 5:00 AM, coz I just let myself lie in bed to get used to being awake for a few minutes before going downstairs, and then I fell back to sleep... So it caused me to have this AWESOME dream where my dad was driving me somewhere (it was some part of Boston I'd never seen, this place is a recurring location in my dreams from time to time) and everything seemed real, and even the XM radio service in his car was realistic (it cuts off song titles sometimes), which I know because I dreamed there was an MSI song that was like an improved version of either 'Planet of the Apes' or the song preceding it on the CD it's on (It was like how '2 Hookers' later became '2 Hookers and an 8-ball'), and I said to my dad that this was an MSI song, and I was excited... And the title was something I swear I'd seen before, it had three words, but I can't remember it... So anyways, I've added this dream to my list of dreams taking place in a strange location in Boston, which are also lucid dreams (dreams where you know it's a dream)...
  17. GMan

    Long Awaited Comic

    By GMan,

    There was no point in beating around the bush, because I'm kind of in a motivational slump. I don't feel like doing more comics for a while, but I wanted to post the last unpublished comic I'd produced. I think you understand what I'm hinting at in this one...

  18. GMan
    Using continually repeated statements, bright images, attention-grabbing formats, and most importantly, sleep deprivation (and other methods), the media has been brainwashing us. Think about it. A common technique for breaking wills is repeatedly interrupting sleep- and everybody knows it can be hard to stay up for more at 11. You have to wake up early for the specials, and you have to stay up late for the news, and the media has a bevvy of news channels to keep you continually involved. If you have to constantly rouse yourself from sleep to keep up on the news, so be it. The news shows and media programs all have repeated mantras, driven into your mind with flashy ads, promos, slogans, and repeated mentions of what's coming up next, though you have to sit through an hour of what they didn't mention to get to what piqued your interest in the first place. News is just news, so therefore a TiVo owner might come to the conclusion that it's a frivolous thing to record the news show late at night. This is what media bunches want. And when the news is done? OH my GIBBITY GOSHES, THAR BE A CELEBRITY WITH LOOSE MORALS ON A TALKSHOW! Must-see TV! And after that? Oh boy, a rerun of that one episode from an ubiquitous 90's sitcom that made you snort cola out your nose every two minutes from glee! And the only things between parts of the shows are just those silly old ads, and the slogans for the investigative report, and the ad for the next episode of that talk show where they'll be showing the three eyed lizard boy and his yodeling twin, and mentions of products in show ads, and you know, nothing really concerning. And what's the matter with staying up late to catch a few shows?... Our natural sleep cycles have trouble adjusting to changes. That's the cause of jet lag and other such problems. You might be accustomed to waking up in the wee hours of the morning, but your body will never fully adjust. Thus, the occasional slip-up that leads to oversleeping. Therefore, when you examine the constant flow of media, and media about content, and content about media, and content provided by media, you see that there is always content to be displayed on the channel, always ads for other such media content on other channels. The pressure to keep up in this modern day and age, even if it's just keeping up on who's suing Lindsay Lohan now, is overwhelming. Which is the way the media wants it to be. Now, go along, you're probably missing that one-hour special on that one fancy investigation into some scandal.
  20. GMan

    Privy To Much Knowledges

    By GMan,

    It's true. I happen to be well aware of numerous factoids that most people here are not, however, most of those people aren't the intelligent sophisticates (albeit some with grammar issues) who read my blog. I know something you don't know, I know something you don't know! Heheh. The Google machine may churn out festering lies and evil, but it is very useful.
     
    In other news, it appears that sk8boarder_to_da_max (sorry if I got your name wrong) has given me a seal of approval thingy. I shall have to make a new section for this.
     
    Oh, and the Concrete death trap succeeded in sapping away more fragments of my life and soul today. However, this was not in the in-school suspension I served out today (I hit somebody who had been trying to provoke me for weeks, I'm angry at myself now), but rather, right after I got to my locker when school ended. I need not explain, for those knowledgeable should be able to extrapolate some sort of near-factual conclusion.
     
     
    Sha-ZAM! *runs off flapping arms and screaming gibberish*
  22. GMan

    Cthulhu And The Movies

    By GMan,

    No, this is not about everybody's favorite down-on-his-luck sociopath Cthulhu the Rage Cannon, but on an issue I have with Hollywood. For, you see, numerous movies have been titled "Cthulhu", which would lead one to believe that the movie featured Cthulhu prominently, or was an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft tale from which the deity originates, "The Call of Cthulhu". But, NO. IT'S ALMOST ALWAYS A HORRIFICALLY DISFIGURED VERSION OF 'A Shadow Over Innsmouth', ANOTHER LOVECRAFT STORY. Worse yet, the movies that aren't mistitled adaptations of that story, but still do not feature Cthulhu whatsoever, or take such liberties with the concept that you're left wondering if it's really about breakdancing Swedish pot-head babies come to eat your skulls. This angers me greatly. As a rule of thumb, any movie containing the name 'Cthulhu', however misspelled, should it be 'Ktulu', 'Kathulu', 'Cthulu', and so on, must include this deity, and not in a brief mention coupled with the one small scene featuring the Necronomicon that was edited and stretched for the trailers shown in theaters and on television to attract people who think they know about ficticious occult content. You know what I mean, Hollywood. Evil Dead and its sequels, whilst not Lovecraftian in nature, successfully pulled off the concept of the Necronomicon and its usage in cinema. Such a feat has not yet materialized in mainstream, widely-distributed, or well-funded horror films in recent time. If it is more based on The Shadow Over Innsmouth than The Call of Cthulhu, it should be named 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', or should that prove too long a title, something along the lines of just 'Innsmouth' would be acceptable. However, if the movie takes extreme liberties with the adaptation of this as well, it should just be retooled into something else, because it has strayed from the vision of the original story and is not true to the spirit or character of Lovecraft's writing. While I applaud the makers of the American film with the title of 'Cthulhu' being released this year for using a gay protagonist, I strongly disagree with the direction of the plot, and the attempted symbolism.
     
    Now, give me an adaptation of The Temple, or an actual adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu that doesn't suck, Hollywood, and that would make me happier. Not 'happy', nor 'cheery', and not anything along the lines of 'jovial', but less angry at the film industry for their treatment of Lovecraft's work.
  23. GMan

    A Recap.

    By GMan,

    Today, the strange, tappy extensions of the things on the end of my arms shall beat out the misadventures of a man who has overly internalized philosophical quandries several times a day, who is increasingly angry and bitter, who just barely recognizes the connected implications of not feeling full familiarity with your own voice and the level of insulation you provide in your mind between the trivial parts of your everyday activities, habits, and flaws, and your more personal moments, who is disturbingly enough nostalgic for different periods of time all at once despite being nostalgic for times before all but the earliest of these times and recalling still being nostalgic for these earlier times in days long past, who has dreams that he wishes he could relive a million times over, or as you know him, me. I am back in a good amount of black, folks, and I warn ye, steel thine selves for an onslaught of utterly bitter postings in the following days that shall surely be quick to sully thine soul with fires of doubt and evil thoughts within the following days. Not to mention, mine comrades in this, the precipitous art of understanding what little thought can be stretched into a sharing of feeling and life, the ability to switch between the ways I write in faster than thine great-aunt Gilda was hastened to the hospital beds upon a most mortifying discovery of a horrendous pox upon her innards. Uhuh, boys, I's plungin' my head into the BZP blog community and I'm keeping it in there without coming up for air. Don't you love it when I start off introducing the subject of the blog entry, only to deviate into sentences and sentences of thinking you can't quite follow?
     
    Alright... Yesterday was my sister's tenth birthday, which of course is GREAT. It also means I turn fourteen the next Friday, which, despite compounding my usual disturbingly early and uncommon fears about my mortality and my longing for various moments in the past, is a wonderful thing. However, my sister's day at elementary school yesterday sucked. Nobody, none of the numerous classmates who she had known for years or her friends, or her acquaintances from previous years, remembered it was her birthday, and nobody at all said 'Happy birthday' to her until her birthday was mentioned in the announcements. And this is my sister, who, from what I can tell, most people that she interacts with daily know well. The common information exchanges that precede the eventual familiarity with an elementary-school classmate always includes birth dates. And she had six inches of her hair cut for something called Locks of Love, a charity organization, and her friends derided her for it and weren't supportive of her choice... They were saying things like 'Oh my god, what did you do to your hair?!' 'Your hair looks awful!' 'I liked your hair when it was longer!' and similar disgustingly shallow things. Their insensitive remarks demotivated her to the point that she didn't even try to point out that she did it for charity. She came home crying. That is AWFUL... My sister is very connected to all of her friends. They make up her social network, they are the people her age that she trusts and likes. My sister came home extremely happy about her haircut on Thursday. And then her friends launch a barrage of comments denigrating her for it. An unexpected, emotionally devastating attack. I love my little sister, and to hear about her friends (who mean tons to her) doing this to her, and to hear about what a bad day she had at school, I was horrified. I've suffered this sort of betrayal myself, and it hurts deeply. I can't understand how my sister's friends could make such a big deal over hair, though, since hair grows back fast. My sister took it in stride, though.
     
    Later that evening, we went to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner, with two of my sister's friends that she doesn't see at school (and thus, not among the ones who got all hive-mindy and belittled her), and though I enjoyed being with my family, and seeing my sister cheer up, I was uncomfortable with all the noise and the crowdedness... My sister embarassed me, but hey, birthday license. She had a lot of fun. I can't say the same. My steak was awful. Never go to Texas Roadhouse for steak, but unfortunately, due to the place's Southern theme, it's their main focus. Besides all the peanuts they have everywhere in the restaurant. So therefore, any alternative dishes I could have chosen would have been woefully prepared, as I know from experience. And they play country all the time. My father and I, who had driven to the restaurant separately (because my mom was picking up my sister's two friends), left early, because we both didn't like the place.
     
    Also, a bunch of books by John Stark Bellamy II arrived, which my mom ordered because he's a Cleveland historian, and after picking up one of his books on Cleveland crimes and disasters at the Cleveland airport on the way home from a visit to my mom's side of the family in August, I developed an interest in his work. I have a great interest in history, and I love reading up on it. My mom's interested in history, too. She's done historical work for our church and our town. Now, John Stark Bellamy's work is engrossing. The guy delved deeply into Cleveland history, and there's enough material that he's produced numerous thick books full of it.
     
    Oh, and I've settled into semi-routines at school. More on school soon.
     
     
    Today, my sister and I went out to breakfast with our dad. I was kind of irritated there, because my sister couldn't stop talking, and other factors contributed to a growing level of frustration. However, the breakfast itself rocked. We drove on up to Salem, New Hampshire, to go look for video games for our new Wii. Oh yeah, we have a Wii. It is so much fun that its every inch of content is filled with victory. So, we stopped at Best Buy first. My sister chose Mario Party 8, and I chose Super Paper Mario. I also picked up an Oingo Boingo 'Best-of' album, since I'd been meaning to get an Oingo Boingo album for ages, and I got the White Zombie CD Astro Creep 2000. Oh, man... So, the Best Buy was our last stop. We joked and talked and stuff on our way home, and it was a pleasant trip.
     
    After we got home, I started listening to my Oingo Boing album. I love the songs on it... "Just Another Day" and "Private Life" are powerful, emotional songs... Anyways, soon after, my sister convinced me to join in for a game of Mario Party 8. Not knowing how long it would last, I had her choose the 15-turn version, on the Battle Royale setting of the normal Party game. I played as Luigi, and while it was fun, oh so fun, it was a little frustrating. The minigames could be ridiculous. However, most of them ROCKED TO THE EXTREMENESSES TRICEFOLD WITH A MUFFIN ON TOP. Wii Sports is cool, but it gets annoying after a while. Have you tried Wii boxing, or the training setting for Wii boxing, for that matter? The sensor bar, no matter what position, will repeatedly fail miserably to detect punches and thrusts and whatnot. Our mother observed my sister and I thrusting both the Wii Nunchuk and the Wiimote in the sensor's direction, as we jumped up and down furiously, trying to get the sensor bar to notice just ONE throw. She said it was hilarious. However, this does nothing to reduce the not-very-fun-ness that is Wii Sports after continual attempts at even a facsimile of real entertainment, once the novelty fades from it. Mario Party 8, however, is fantastic. WOOP WOOP MUCH THE ROCKAGES FOR NINTENDO. However, the sound on our Wii doesn't work, and we can't figure out why... But hey, my day's pretty much been full of good events.
     
     
    Now, for those of you wondering what could possibly be blasphemed onto this series of tubes the Internet next, let me give you a sneak peek: I will be ranting about school, I will be ranting about teachers. I will be talking about stupid people on the internet. There will be mention of media sleep deprivation commercial submersion mechanisms. Steel yourselves for a detailed vision of a future chock full of 'censorship in the name of family values'. Something GMan this way comes, indeed...
  25. GMan

    I Looked In The Mirror Today

    By GMan,

    ...after I had goofed around a little. I was alone in the house, and humans knowing they aren't being watched being what they are, I was silly and wacky. Then, I laughed at my own antics and how stupid they were, as I stood reading a copy of the Boston Herald on the counter. As I looked through the first few pages, a thought crossed my mind: How did I look doing this, doing that? Then it got deeper. I realized that I didn't address myself by my name often, nor did I think of myself completely. True, I thought about my body or pressing matters, but did I think about being a brain in a body, or think about me as myself, or the person in the mirror as me? I walked over to a mirror in the hall, and I stared at myself, talking to myself. My mind could not get itself around this alien concept of... Something. Something relating to me being in this body, this being how others saw me, how my actions made sense to me because of my thoughts but my thoughts were directed by things learned from actions, how strange I must look to other people, or how normal, because of my actions being similar to their actions (almost, I'm quite the weird person), because this pattern for behavior was imprinted on them by witnessing such behavior, in a long string of changing life experiences across the world. I could not grip the core of this foreign idea, yet I could visualize the idea that my mind and actions put together make me a different person than the person other people only observe. But there was something deep in the center of the idea of my mind being within my body, my body and me being one and the same and not an operator and its machinery. I can barely put this experience into words, let alone the concepts I tried to understand. I knew, but I did not understand. The sum of this utterly Freudian ordeal was that I more often than not did not make the connection between I and the person in the mirror. It is a very disturbing thing to be familiar with your face and yet not completely recognize it as your own. I could say the experience triggered by my lackadaisical behavior was an out of body experience, yet unsettlingly enough, it felt like an in-body experience.
     
    Even more terrifying, the fact or realization that you are far more accustomed to the faces and existence of the people around you and the minds driving their actions than your own? And self identity as a whole, in each person, is already complicated enough, with people these days getting a sudden need to frivolously medicalize and psychologize and explain away self-identification and differences in opinion, and going so far as to make up a fancy term with a fancier set of psychological junk to explain being nervous on the first day of school, and then replacing the actual causes with a new list of causes, tagged with their own in-depth "explanations". When you cannot connect to the ports of your own personality, in a world where people are trying to fix everything for their own agendas, where everything absolutely has to have a convoluted personal psycho-motivational explanation for it, does your own face and the mind behind it mean anything? Anything at all?
    EDIT: Republished for addition of new content.
×
×
  • Create New...