| Troop Drive |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|12:33 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Toto-Rosanna | ] |
As a tribute to the soldiers who are currently serving in Iraq, HBO is having this Troop Drive:
http://www.hbo.com/generationkill/
What you do is choose a product to send and just put in your name, email address, city/state and that's it.
By the way, Generation Kill looks awesome. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|01:06 am] |
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212153770.shtml
That’s just… sad…
Though a robot woman may lack all of the bullshit that comes with the typical human woman, still I can guess accurately that the only people that will buy a robot girlfriend are the same people who wear shirts that say, “Anime has raised my standards too high for real women”.
Indeed.
Now in other news, school is going okay. I was surprised when I got an 86 on my last test. However, I dread the problem solving questions in the future…
I got a job at a publishing company, Cliff Road Books. I’m still with Aura but won’t be working with it much until the fall semester. Basically with Cliff Road I assist an editor with photo research, fact checking, grammar corrections, etc. So far it has proven to kind of suck. My first assignment has been photo research for a sports book, of all things, and specifically football, of all things. To top this all off, I have to do this on a slow 56k dial up connection. Awesome.
I didn’t think my contempt for a pointless, redneck sport could get any worse and I already know most of the history of the damn thing. |
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| Thoughts |
[May. 9th, 2008|04:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  weird | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Opeth-Hex Omega | ] |
It’s been a long time since my last post and it’s been an even longer time since I’ve posted some general thoughts on things happening in the world. I think about things constantly and analyze them in my head but I never really bother writing them down, much less post a blog about them. Unfortunately I don’t even have the patience to keep a written journal around. It’s only every now and then that something motivates me enough to write something down. It seems that livejournal is hardly ever used anymore, except some of the communities that frequently update. I guess keeping a blog has just gotten boring. And I guess I’m just updating now because it’s convenient.
First off, I stopped going to 4chan. It’s only been about three or four days but I don’t suspect that I’ll be going back any time soon. The only reason is that 4chan has gotten so stupid and full of fail that it’s not worth continuing with. No, it’s not a good, funny-in-a-twisted-way stupid, it’s just plain stupid. And frankly, it has gotten boring. I’m sick and tired of browsing through the pages and pages of trolls and pointless debates about religion. And I’m fed up with the arguments about whether Europe or America is better than one another. Anonymous has split into factions, each favoring their own self righteous definition of what Anonymous is and I don’t want to keep up with it. Stupid. Boring. And worst of all: trivial. I am done with 4chan.
Now for the meat of this entry. This is going to be somewhat hard and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to be totally coherent about my thoughts here. I’m not even sure, as I’m typing this now, where to begin. Some people will probably find this trivial but I don’t really care. I’ll probably add to this if I can think of any more.
I got my car back from the body shop today and went over to the Books-a-Million in Fultondale to pick up a copy of The Godfather by Mario Puzo. After I got the book I walked over to Best Buy to look through the DVDs. I almost bought Revenge of the Sith but realized I didn’t have enough money for it. And I had wanted to get a copy of Black Hawk Down for a long time but when I went to find it I realized that I wasn’t even ready to watch it. So as I left this prompted some thoughts and revelations that I’ve been having for the past few weeks.
I think it’s safe to say that everyone knows of things that they’re afraid to look into. Everyone knows of certain things that they don’t understand or want to understand. For me this is terrorism. Obviously it’s not just Islamic terrorism but terrorism in general. I’ve read into it and have seen some videos online about it. And I don’t understand it. I don’t even want to understand it. It frightens me down to the core of my soul. A few days ago (out of my own morbid curiosity) I tried to watch a video of Chechnya rebels massacring a group of Russian conscript soldiers.
I’m not even going to describe what I saw there. It was too much and it left me literally trembling. It was one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen.
Though looking into the background of the war they were in the Russians were really no better (wiki Chechnya-Russian wars I and II). There were soldiers on that side that massacred civilians and other things I don’t want to get into. Still…
The thing is I have almost no trouble delving into the criminal mind. I like True Crime and Criminal fiction, Hardboiled/Noir, etc. I’m deeply fascinated with the Mafia and I like to read into what drives not just the Mob but the criminal fraternity in general. As a writer I find that a good deal of my themes revolves around criminals of some type.
There is a distinct difference between typical criminality and terrorism, despite some similarities. Criminals do what they do usually for money or power, whereas terrorists do what they do for political or religious ideology. I don’t understand that at all. I guess I only understand to the extent that some types of terrorists like Islamic terrorists have known violence pretty much all their lives. It’s practically all they know. My spiritual beliefs about whether or not what they do can be termed “evil” is irrelevant. What’s relevant, however, is there is an explanation for it. There is an age-old cycle of conflict that reaches back to ancient times. All that terrorists do is contribute and perpetuate that cycle by making it worse with their barbarism and their senseless radicalism. You can find this with any faction of terrorists, like the IRA for example.
What comes to my mind now is something from the film version of No Country for Old Men, one of my recent obsessions:
"The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, 'O.K., I'll be part of this world.'"
In this case, I’d have to say I am indeed afraid of something I don’t understand. But at the same time it disgusts me. I don’t understand why some people have to kill others in such horrible ways because of religion or for political gain. I’m absolutely no more sympathetic to criminals in the Mob who kill for power and money, but for some reason I find that trying to understand them is a lot more tolerable than trying to understand terrorists. I kind of don’t know what to make of that.
"… I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand."
This line really struck me the most because it implies that not everything is what it seems, that there is sometimes a certain underbelly that’s not easy to explore. Organized crime like you see in the Sicilian Mafia stems from poverty and desperation. The Sicilian Mafia formed in a chaotic time in Italy, in the absence of law and strong government. Similar things happened with the Irish, the Russians, the South Americans, etc. Books and movies like The Godfather and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote are so important (at least to me) because they epitomize what drives the criminal underworld. In Cold Blood is just as scary as anything but I could get through the whole thing and would read it again if I had the time. I also cite certain parts of movies like Batman Begins and perhaps The Dark Knight when it comes out.
Now I don’t pretend to fully understand the criminal mind, because I think the only way to do that is to actually be one. And obviously I’m not going to go that far. I’ll probably be able to pick up Black Hawk Down again and watch it, but for now it’s too early. Certain parts of it remind me of what I saw and what I don’t want to see again. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get over what I saw or not.
Well... I'm over it for the most part, but there's still something uncomfortable that remains. What’s worse is that that was just a small part of a whole horrific history of violence. I realize that it’s a sad part of human nature, but despite that, it leaves me with a fear that I can’t fully describe.
It’s a genuine, very real fear. It’s a corrupt-your-soul-and-leave-you-in-the-dark kind of fear… |
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| Social Networking Site for Creative Writers |
[Mar. 17th, 2008|04:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Enigma-Gravity of Love | ] |
Found this site while on facebook
http://www.scribophile.com/
This is a social networking site for writers. You set up a profile like facebook, except you also post creative work to share with others and have them critiqued. There’s also news and articles about the creative writing community.
It’s pretty cool, check it out. If you’re into writing I suggest this for getting your work out for others to see. |
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| Most ridiculous dream of the week |
[Jan. 30th, 2008|02:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Work | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bored | ] |
Mostly because I'm bored here at the student media office.
My dream last night was where an old friend and I were riding around Birmingham, seemingly to random places. It was my car we were riding in but someone else was driving it whom I didn't know until later on in the dream. Anyway, me and my friend decided to stop and jump out of the car and go pick fights with random homeless people. Somehow the homeless people started beating us so we jumped back in and took off. Later we pulled into a gas station and I realized that the guy driving us was none other than Viggo Mortenson himself, specifically from the movie "Eastern Promises" (good movie, btw). For some reason he had my Chevron card but I started yelling at him:
"Don't use the card! I've got a friggin' twenty here, use THAT!"
And he complied. Then he started speaking Russian and I was about to speak to him in German when I woke up this morning.
One of the best dreams I've ever had. Me yelling at a celebrity in MY dream? It's more likely than you think! |
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| Ha! Ha! I’m updating my blog! |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|11:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  indifferent | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Mechanical Poet-Shades On a Casement | ] |
First off, I discovered this ridiculously awesome band called Mechanical Poet recently. If you like metal that’s not like most others then I highly recommend them.
The next semester begins tomorrow. The past few weeks have been good but unproductive. Christmas and the New Year were good as well, though Christmas doesn’t mean as much to me as it used to when I was younger. But that’s another blog for another time. That is, if I ever get around to it, which I probably won’t. I’ve virtually stopped writing blogs now. In fact, it looks like pretty much everyone has done the same. I don’t know why that is. A phase in which people grow out of online journals maybe? Who knows?
Well, anyway things have been good. I managed to pass all my classes from the next semester. The last semester wasn’t that great and, seemingly, it had been that way for a lot of people around me too. I guess that was partly due to the weather change. It sucks going to school in the wintertime. By the end of the semester I got to the point where I almost didn’t care anymore. I thank the gods for pulling me through that though. A whole new year waits down the road ahead now.
So here are my classes for this semester:
American Literature 1
Celtic Fringe
Forms of Fiction: Short Story
Beginning Acting
Like my Beginning Theatre class last year the Acting class was a desperate last minute pick. Go figure.
I’m going to stop here for now, but before I do I would welcome anybody that’s got my cell phone number to call me sometime. My days may be quite busy depending on the amount of schoolwork I get but I’m open for talking or if we can arrange it, some hanging out and whatnot. There are still some of you that I haven't seen in a while. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday anytime after 12:00 might be good. Anytime before 5:30 and after 8:00 on Tuesdays. And anytime before 2:00-3:15 is good as well. |
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| I'm not good with subject headings |
[Nov. 28th, 2007|10:57 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Amon Amarth-Gods of War Arise | ] |
Okay, the new issue of Aura is complete. It has yet to be printed but I expect that the whole process will be finished sometime in the next two months. The release party will be sometime in January. It looks very good on the layout, which gives me a good bit of relief because I was stressing over how it would come out. Had a real hard time getting art submissions but thankfully it worked out okay. Not bad for my first round as editor. Couldn’t have done it without the staff and the copy editor though, they’re a pretty awesome bunch of people.
Things have been crazy at school. This semester has been okay for the most part, I don’t think my grades will be as good as I had hoped but fortunately it looks like I’ll be passing all my classes. The Middle Ages class I’m taking is pretty cool. I’ve learned a good deal about social structure and Medieval/Dark Ages economy. It’s been helpful because I’m starting to turn an eye towards historical fiction. I started work on what could be a book centered on Vikings. It’s not much so far, just a bunch of notes, but it’s coming together pretty well.
My fiction writing class turned out a lot more difficult than I expected. I wrote a short story for my previous fiction class that turned out well but with this class I’ve found that I’ve still got a good bit to go before I get real good at this type of thing. Good class though, I like it.
German has been good, generally. I fell way behind on the reading this semester so unfortunately I haven’t really mastered the entire basics of the language. Despite this, the tests in this class are notoriously easy to pass. All you have to do is make the corrections and you get half credit. Haven’t failed a single test so far. And I can turn in all the assignments I missed next week.
I fucking HATE my research for literature class. Goddamn, for one thing it’s English 101 and 102 all over again, only with computers. And my teacher was next to impossible to please. I turn in B papers and end up getting C’s. She’s also so disorganized it’s not even funny. I had to take this as part of my major so I didn’t have a choice. Terrible class.
Well that’s it for now. I’m aching for a break. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 31st, 2007|03:05 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Kasey Chambers-The Captain | ] |
Aura won a Pacemaker award recently for the Fall 2006 issue. This is a pretty big deal for us.
Some info on the National Pacemaker Awards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pacemaker_Awards
That's really all I have for this update. Happy Halloween. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 11th, 2007|11:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | DMX-Ruff Ryders Anthem | ] |
Okay, in this meme I have six interests chosen by a friend, in which I will explain them all. If you want to do this just comment and I’ll choose six of your interests and you post your explanations in your journal.
Ancient warfare: Out of all aspects of military history that I’m interested in I think ancient warfare would have to be my favorite subject. I like the Viking Age, the Celts, Ancient Rome and Greece (Spartaaaaa!!!), the Samurai, and so on.
Heavy metal: I started listening to Metallica back in middle school and since then I’ve been an avid listener. I love the intensity, the overall look and feel and the ideas that metal puts forth. I listen to a lot of death/black metal and my favorite band is Opeth.
Germany: Germany has an interesting history, especially ancient Germany. I like the German language as well.
Paradise Lost: I first read this about two years ago. It’s a landmark achievement in English literature. Milton wrote this poem challenging authority and mentality during the Romantic period where there was a lot of political and civil strife in Europe. The Devil in “Paradise Lost” was one of the first Byronic heroes introduced to literature. It’s a very difficult read but it’s thought-provoking and the images in this poem are mesmerizing.
Penguins: Well, what can I say? They are the most evil creatures to walk the earth. Sure, they may look cute at the zoo or on the discovery channel but in reality these monsters want nothing more than to destroy human society and make slaves of us all. They are highly organized and often work in secret to come closer to world domination. I’ll never forget that night they destroyed my home and drove me to live my life in secrecy. Most people don’t know the truth behind penguins but someday I hope they will.
Scandinavia: I just like Scandinavia’s history, as well as the music that has come from there. The geography and landscape is amazing from the pictures that I’ve seen.
In other news, this movie looks great. “American Gangster”, I’m looking forward to seeing this when it comes out. Ridley Scott is great director so I hope I won’t be disappointed in this. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 31st, 2007|12:50 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
Student Life went well for the most part, except for parking which was a fucking nightmare. I'm surprised I didn't get a ticket where I parked since there wasn't a single availible spot on the whole fucking campus. However, afterwards everything went relatively well.
Aura is taking submissions now. The email is: uabaura@yahoo.com
And the website has been updated:
http://studentaffairs.sass.uab.edu/aura/
That's it for now, I'm worn out. Damn. |
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| Gutten tag! Wie ghet’s es Ihnen? |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|03:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Donovan-Hurdy Gurdy Man | ] |
Right, school started back last week. The schedule is as follows:
Reading, writing and research for literature
Middle Ages
Fiction writing workshop (higher level)
Introductory German (or Deutsch 101)
And that’s enough about school for now.
Good news: my last trip to the allergist didn’t turn up much because they didn’t test me for everything and they screwed up the results. So I went to another doctor and got tested again. Turns out that I’ve either outgrown or never even had a bunch of the allergies I was tested for when I was a kid. I’m still deathly allergic to peanuts and cashew but before I got retested I had to avoid all tree nuts like pecans, almonds, etc. Turns out I’m not allergic to those after all. But what sucks is that the doctor said that I still have to avoid them because they often get mixed up with peanuts in packages and in bakeries, etc. The good thing is that if I happen to eat a pecan or something it won’t hurt me, still have to avoid them though.
I’ve also outgrown my egg allergies, so no more avoiding those there. I’m also okay with shellfish. This is great because I can rest easier when eating at a restaurant from now on. I’m going to go get a scratch test soon to be on the safe side though.
Student Life Day is tomorrow, I’m going to be there representing Aura, which is taking submissions now. I’ll post contact info about that later on. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 27th, 2007|12:54 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
Why the hell are there people mourning Chris Benoit? That guy MURDERED his whole family before he killed himself, you morons! That's not somebody to cry for or write stupid poems about. Cut it out and get over it, idiots. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 8th, 2007|03:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
I did not know that Paris Hilton was so important to society and current events! Thank you, Fox, CNN, and MSNBC for delivering such insightful news! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 2nd, 2007|07:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pissed off | ] |
Tonight was bullshit. I almost hooked up with the Whore of Babylon. Never again. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 1st, 2007|12:45 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fear Factory-Resurrection | ] |
Let’s see here…
To date I have listened to Fear Factory's "Resurrection" about 100 times according to iTunes. Wow, that's a lot.
Been hanging out with friends, mostly staying home and reading, stuff like that. I finally got Call of Duty 2 a couple of days ago. Yeah, I know about the excessive amount of WWII games that have been produced over the years but I think COD goes places where most in the subject don’t. Totally beats the living hell out of Metal of Honor. COD 2 is a great game, if not a bit repetitive and repeats some missions from the previous. But all in all it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play.
I turned in my payroll application for the magazine and got my employee ID last week. So I actually have a job for once. ZOMG lazy Nathan has a job!? WTF lulz! Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “job”. Not a real job anyway, since I don’t really have a set number of hours and I only get paid for every issue released. I don’t even know how much I’ll be getting paid. Not really my concern though, the work itself is my primary interest.
Also got an offer to write for the Kaleidoscope, which I’ve taken up on. I just have to let the editor know I’m interested. I’m not a real big fan of journalism but I think the experience will be good and, who knows, I might actually have fun with it. |
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| Boredom+computer=update |
[May. 17th, 2007|07:44 pm] |
I’ll be getting some new glasses soon. Went to the eye doctor’s today and bought a new pair, which I won’t be getting until next week. My old pair is shitty as hell, the lenses are out of shape and one of the handles came off so getting a new set has not come a moment too soon.
I also got some nicotine gum at Wal-Mart today, which was twenty fucking dollars for the pack. Of course, it’s a better price than $50 patches. It better be worth every penny of it though, because by thunder I’m going to beat this habit one way or the other.
The thing I’m going to miss about cigarettes is that they pass the time. If I got bored at school or something I’d light one up and smoke until the next class. They were good for nerves too; they kept me calm if I got stressed out. In fact, that was why I took it up in the first place. But there’s so much more that’s bad than good about them. It’s just a nasty habit. When I smoke a lot I feel like shit (pack a day, sometimes a pack and a half). I'm tired of that. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even enjoy smoking anymore; I just do it by necessity. Once you get addicted to nicotine you HAVE to have it, there’s no easy way of turning back. I’ve tried to quit or at least cut back I-don’t-know-how-many-times but never could. They’re money consuming too. I don’t know how much money I’ve spent in the past year and a half alone, I don’t even want to know.
But they don’t do anything for me anymore. It’s time to move on. I’ll be having my last cigarette sometime tonight. Marlboro reds, I started with them, I’m going to stop with them. Going to start on the gum tomorrow. The way things are going nowadays is good for me so there’s no point in depending on them. I don’t want them anymore. |
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| Irvine Welsh Rules |
[Apr. 20th, 2007|03:35 pm] |
"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?" |
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| Where did you come from cotton-eyed Joe? |
[Mar. 27th, 2007|12:20 am] |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 20th, 2007|02:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Terry Reid-Brave Awakening | ] |
I, the terror of the earth, was born 22 years ago, today.
I rule. |
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brave_awakening's journal