On Sunday, the Triumvirate of Evil occurred once again.  What is it you ask?  The Superbowl. 

The Superbowl containes three things that I hate, and what a burning hate it is.  Sports, Television, and Commercials.

I can see no good at all coming from any one of there three things and certainly nothing coming from them combined. 

These are all opinions however, so you can’t point a finger at me for saying I’m wrong, because how can one be wrong with one’s opinions?

Sports are basically communism.  People blindly following their leaders, a stupid minority.

Television causes physical ailments, such as hyperactivity disorder and cancer.

Commercials want only one thing – you to buy stuff.  They don’t care about you as a person; they just want your money and, perhaps, your loyalty.

I can’t understand why people watch the Superbowl.  The sports are dumb, the medium is harmful, and the commercials have ulterior motives than just entertaining you.

I felt this needed to be said.  So here it is.

So, this is where it all began.  It’s interesting how things’ve connected this Saturday.  Exactly a year ago, perhaps around this time of the evening, I learned my first song on guitar: Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’“.  I know Dylan more by other artists’ covers of his songs though.  For this particular one, I knew the Peter, Paul, and Mary version.  Most others are the Byrds, the other early and main influence of my music. 

Here’s the ironic part.  My album for this weekend was the Byrds’ Younger than Yesterday.  The first song on the album is “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star”.  This was the song that made me want to get a guitar.  “Just get an electric guitar and take some time and learn how to play“.  It just sounded so easy.  I know now that it’s not that easy, but it is that much fun.  So it’s ironic that the day marking the one year anniversary of my learning to play an actual song is also a day when the first song of my appointed Saturday album is the song that caused me to want to get into guitar music in the first place. 

My film was Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.  I didn’t really notice anything that I haven’t noticed before during this viewing.  One thing I will make note of is that during the space portion of the Battle of Endor, some TIE fighters appear out of thin air.  Or, rather, thin space.  The reason why is blue screen limitation.  When the Millenium Falcon is swarmed by them, you can glimpse a few just appearing. 

Today was also a quiz bowl competition.  We went to Ancilla College to face nine different schools.  It was pretty fun.  Except for two things:  1) The only thing they had to eat was pizza.  I don’t like pizza.  This is in fact the second time that I’ve been spited by that stereotype – that all teenagers like pizza.  2) One of the proctors, after I indicated that my buzzer did not work, told me, “Well, obviously you’re just incompetent.”  Thank you?  I should have shot back, “Well, you’re just inconsiderate.”  But, alas, I don’t think of these things in time.  So the last few matches were scarred by that. 

I did, however, get a free book of short stories and won a book about the brain because I was one of the highest scoring individual participants.  (I think I was 11th or 12th.)  My team scored 5th out of 9.  It was pretty good.  But that old guy bugs me still.  It’s like over the summer when I went to the doctor’s office, and an old guy yelled at me because I was tired.  I hate old people like that.  I like old people that are nice and/or funny.  Like the old guy that held the door open for me at the gas station this week.  He was nice; this guy was not. 

I’m kind of tired from waking up at 5:15 in the morning in order to actually go to this competition though, so I’ll end here, however long or short this is.  I might also mention that my tiredness is probably exacerbated by my cold that inflicted me starting on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning.  It peaked Friday night, so I’m on the downward end for now.  Yay for illnesses, right?  Seriously though, it’s the sickest I’ve been in three years.  Lots of snot and lots of phlegm.

Yesterday, I betrayed one of my ideals.  I watched live-broadcasted television.  For the first time since 12 June 2009.  Originally, I had shunned television for the ideals that it presented.   Specifically for the limits that it had as a broadcasting medium as well as the effects it has on the viewer (see a previous post for more on this). 

Recently though, I’ve given up being an idealist.  It doesn’t seem to do much.  Especially when my ideals are up against the large barriers that they are.  I can’t single handedly eradicate television after it’s been around for almost 100 years (2027).  I doubt that I could even find a small group of people who’d believe it.  Being an idealist takes energy.  Large amounts at that.  I just don’t have that energy anymore, if I ever did in the first place.  The things I’m against have too many people for them.

The other ideal I’ve given up is not learning to drive.  I guess I have to now.  For this though, I blame the United States.  If they would have simply put their cities closer together, cars wouldn’t be needed.  Then people wouldn’t assume that I have a driver’s license.  I also just didn’t want to put the energy into the drivers’ test a second time after I failed the first after a stupid situation that wasn’t my fault as well as a discrepancy in beliefs.  I did NOT cut that car off.  I had plenty of room. 

I’ve now given up two things that made me (from my point of view) an interesting person and different from everyone else.  I’m just like everyone else now.  Does everyone else feel this hopeless all the time?

So now it was 51 years ago that three musicians were lost. 

I’ve been thinking about music a lot lately.  I’m doing FAWM – February Album Writing Month.  I finished two songs so far.  No music yet.  I also have a half of two other songs.  As well as a half of a song not for FAWM, the song for my personal goal of a song per month.  Ironically, that song is about the Day the Music Died.  Not as extravagant as “American Pie”, however. 

I updated my pages so that my albums are more visible.  I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not.  Either it’s terrible, and that’s why people ignore it.  Or it’s wonderful, but it hasn’t been presented very well.  I’d be more likely to agree with the former. 

In any case, my struggle to create 13 more songs continues.

Whenever anyone asks me “What’s up?”, I usually reply with “Not much”.  This is hardly ever the truth, however.  I just don’t feel that I’m important enough of a person to go on about what I think is interesting and still maintain the interest of whomever I’m talking to. 

Such was the case to-day when one of my friends asked me what was new.  I said, “Not much”, but this was hardly the case.  I should like to amend that here, so that you internet people can be uninterested in what I have to say.  For I don’t think that you find me very interesting anyway.

So, “What’s new?”

A LOT.  Yesterday I went to a birthday party for two of my friends.  I got invited to it last Thursday in the hallway walking to my Music History and Appreciation class.  It was at some fancy banquet hall out in the country.  I can’t drive (and would’ve gotten lost anyway, aside from not trusting myself driving even when I did have a permit), so my parents brought me.  Most of the time I stood around awkwardly (which I am quite proficient at), trying to get into circles of people I half-know from school.  It was fun though.  I actually danced too.  I haven’t done that since 6th grade, 6 years ago.  I did kind of feel bad that I danced there and not at my cousin’s wedding on the 2nd.  I guess I’m more comfortable acting stupid with my friends than my family.  Though at some times, I think my family thinks I’m stupider than what my friends think about me. 

I stayed there for four hours; it lasted until midnight.  It took me a while to figure out how to get out of the building, for there were twists and turns in the hallway.  In the entry way (or foyer, to be fancy), there was a piano.  I looked around to see if anyone was there to yell at me if I played something.  I didn’t see anyone, so I walked over to it and was going to play the one song I know on piano (“This Will Be Our Year” by the Zombies, natch).  It was an old piano though, and the hammers didn’t move when I pushed down on the keys.  Oh well.

On the way home, I was in that mood where I’m tired but super mentally active.  Like what happens around 3 a.m. in the summer months when I go to sleep around 4 a.m. and wake up at 1 or 2 in the afternoon.  I might also mention that on the way there, my parents informed me that in Cinderella, it is in fact, a pumpkin that turns into a carriage.  I thought it was a mushroom, and in fact, put that fallacy into my NaNoWriMo novel.  But it’s too late to change that now because I submitted it to the createspace people, who are going to print it and send it to me in the 15th of February.  I would’ve changed the type font size and page margins too.  The average page doesn’t have much on it.

I also signed up for FAWM – February Album Writing Month.  I’m not really sure why.  Perhaps it’s because I did NaNoWriMo and now think that I can also do FAWM and April’s Script Frenzy.  To have a bang of my last year of high school.  Typical of myself, I decided to make the first letter of every song title create a sentence when read vertically.  In this case: “The FAWM Album Is”.  Thus, the song titles are:

1. The Pneumoniacs’ Apothecarium
2. H (undecided as of yet)
3. E (also undecided)
4. Facsimile of a Dream
5. A Typewriter Sonata
6. Wisconsin, I’ll See You Soon
7. Monopoly
8. ALDI
9. Lexicographical Self Portrait
10. Breslau, Prussia
11. Upon the Tower of Light
12. M (undecided)
13. Icy Leis
14. Spam Message

I’ll get into these more when I actually write the songs.  I’ll be sure to keep my blog updated as I write them.  Along with the usual Saturday posts.  If you, the internet reader, haven’t noticed, my blog posts in January have followed a pattern.  I’ve posted every Sunday, Tuesday (despite late nights due to quiz bowl), Thursday, and Saturday.  Now, the calendar that shows my blog posts has stripes.  I planned this.

I also started another crazy project.  I decided to cover 46 different Beatles’ songs in, hopefully, under a year to combat the influence of fake-instrument video games.  I don’t know how successful I’ll be in this, but I’ll try at least.  Along with my musical inclinations, I’ve learned some more songs on the guitar.  Such as Cat Steven’s “Wild World”, Shocking Blue’s “Venus” (well… kind of), and Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane over the Sea”.  Just to-day, I was finally able to get the Beatles’ “I Call Your Name”.  (Which was later covered by both the Buckinghams and the Mamas & the Papas.)

Next Saturday, I’m going to a mini-tournament for quiz bowl.  We might win money.  Though probably not.  Our team isn’t the best.  We’re pretty good, but there are other teams better than we.  (Note the elliptical construction.)  It’s kind of the deal of how the state competition was last year.  So that’ll be a stressful day.  With quiz bowl taking up 8 hours or so, then my weekly movie and album, and a blog post.  Perhaps some FAWMing.  I might have homework too….

As far as I can think, this is what’s new with me.  However, I don’t like saying these things because I feel it brings too much attention to myself.  Also, I don’t think that they are particularly interesting.  (This is why I like the internet because people can know about them if they want to; they don’t feel forced to listen to my blithering.)  Also, in the circumstance as it was today, I didn’t have enough time to explain all of these.  I also felt precluded by present company.  I don’t really relate to the old church people….

This makes up for the Saturday a few months ago when it was Saturday XLIV.  (Read that one if you don’t understand this joke.)

I listened to my album and watched my movie already, so I can blog now.  It’s like I have a blogging addiction and must do other things to earn the right to blog….

Anyway, I listened to Manna by Bread.  This is why capitalisation is important.  Otherwise, I would have listened to a baked and leavened food made of flour.  It was pretty good.  Both the album and the actual bread I ate in sandwich form.  I can’t remember much of it now though.  I can’t remember much of the album.  I can vaguely remember the sandwich.  I did already have some songs; I recognised and knew those.  The other ones kind of sounded the same.  As it is, I have to listen to an album a few times to really get a feel for it.

My movie was Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.  Simply: Empire.  And, again, I am glad that I waiting until after watching it to blog.  I noticed three things.  Now, the hard part is remembering them. 

First.  Twice early on in the movie, two characters (I think Leia and Han) have two different colours shown on their faces at once.  This isn’t an expression; it’s literal.  One side has a red glow, and one side has a bluish glow.  If not purely a coincidence, I believe that this foreshadows the strain that is placed on them later, when they’re in the struggle between good and evil.  With red representing the evil and blue representing good.  If you choose to look at it that way.

Second.  In the asteroid field when the TIE fighters chase the Millenium Falcon, their lasers are blue.  Or at least bluish.  In virtually every other scene (or at least all of the other ones that I can remember), their lasers are green.  I don’t know what caused this or if it’s important or… like that.  It’s probably just a trivial error.

Third.  In the famous, albeit often misquoted, scene where Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father, his helmet can be seen shaking due to, apparently, the wind machines used.  It’s slight, but it is visible. 

Again, this isn’t what I had originally in mind when I started this movie-a-week thing.  I thought I would learn things about framing or story-telling.  Instead, I’m just finding goofs and stuff.  The red/blue glow thing is viable though. 

I guess the movie-watching thing has had some other merits though.  Like rediscovering movies I had forgotten about.  Also, I was comparing scenes that I had written in my head for my NaNoWriMo novel (which I have plans of making into a movie) with those presented in the movie.  Especially the Star Wars movies, which were a great emphasis.  I think most of my novel is comparable to Star Wars and Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille.  I still have a day and six hours to regret my decision to not read it again every month for a year.  I’ve done that twice now.  I think I’ll give it a rest.

At lunch, two things occurred to me, so I figured I would blog about both of them.

First, lemon-lime sodas.  I thought that I would take a stand on this critical issue.  Because, you know, everyone has to take a stand on something as important as which type of lemon-lime soda he prefers.  Between Sprite and 7UP, obviously the two best of all lemon-lime sodas, I would choose Sprite. 

Now, I do have an extensive history with 7UP.  Whenever I went to my grandparents’ house, they got 7UP so I would have something to drink.  I think they got it because then they would drink whatever was left.  But I like Sprite better.  Nothing against 7UP; it’s a valid drink.  I simply like Sprite better.  Not only does it have a higher concentration of lemon-lime-ness, but it also has smaller bubbles.  Not like I’ve measured the size of the bubbles in my soda (I don’t get THAT bored.), but they just feel smaller when I drink it. 

Second!  Occupations.  I’ve realised something that usually holds true for occupations.  When children view their parents go off to jobs, they form an opinion of that job.  Either they think it’s a really cool job or they think that it’s a really bad job.  “Bad” in the sense that it has too many problems or requires too much energy, or work.  (There might be other viewpoints, and almost undoubtably there are other viewpoints.  But for purposes of simplifying matters, I’ve chosen only these two.)  So when that child grows up he either really wants to follow his parent’s occupation or he wants to avoid it at all costs.  Because, as a child, that job was impressed upon his memory as either something really great or something really terrible or distasteful.  Now, granted, this isn’t always the case, but for the most part, I believe it holds true.

I alluded to the main topic of this post in a previous post.  Something about how homework is, well, an anathema. 

I’ve realised this but slowly.  Perhaps being a senior this year, with an admitted onset of senioritis (which is a stupid name that really means inflamation of the senior), gave me this distinction.  I’ve realised that there are things that I want to do that would actually further me in terms of being a well-rounded person.  Some might even help me academically.  However, what stands in the way?  Homework, which is supposed to make me a well-rounded academician. 

It’s not that homework is completely useless.  Sure, it has merit.  But in the degrees of both mass and difficulty that it has recently been given makes me question what the purpose of it really is.  Is it really to help me be a better person, or at least a better student, or is it for purposes of taking up every second of my free time and making me loathe the subjects that I used to adore?  Take English for an example.  I had Honor Junior English last year.  It was a difficult class, but for the most part it was fun.  Even the homework was easy.  It did keep me focused on the subject matter studied, but it’s wasn’t bogging me down in priorities.

Now, I have AP English.  It sucks.  I have at any one time four or five homework assignments.  Apparently, this is supposed to prepare me for college.  I know college is harder than high school, and logically so.  But is it really that difficult?  Is it really that hard that I will have absolutely no time to myself? 

Wait a minute… that wasn’t even the point that I was trying to persuade you, the unknown internet reader, to believe.  It’s that the mass amount of work I have, not to mention the trivial-ness of it, makes me hate the subject that I’m supposed to be learning about.  OK, so the English example is still valid.  I used to like English.  Now though, because we’re doing so much stuff, I’m starting to not care about English.  I recently had to read a nonfiction book for a journaling response activity.  I liked the subjects of my book (crazy people, academicians, and dictionaries) but because I had to organise my thoughts about it in a journal, I didn’t complete the assignment as quickly as a could.  (As quickly as I could while still fulfilling the requirements, mind you.)  Because I have so much work to do, I don’t do it immediately after its assigned because I want to have some free time for myself before I’m almost literally plunged back into the world of school thinking.

This is probably the only reason why I’m excited to get a job – no homework.  You go the school or a job for what, 7, 8 hours a day?  But with school, you have homework to do for the next day.  If you have a job, you’re pretty much done after the final bell tolls.  Perhaps you’d have things to finish up, but it certainly wouldn’t be anything of the scale or scope of school assignments. 

Basically, what I’m trying to get at is this: school assignments do two detrimental things to my growth as both an academician and a well-rounded person.  They diminish my interest in the subject, and they swallow up my free time.  Certainly, they must have a broader purpose than this.  (Ha, perhaps it’s oppression.)

To-day I also had quizbowl.  (I might mention that except for one phrase that needed editing everything above this paragraph was actually typed on Monday.  I’m OCD with dates; it’s my job… kind of.)  Anyway, we went to Michigan City Marquette to play both them and Michigan City.  Like, regular Michigan City.  I’m not sure; I just play quizbowl.  We beat Michigan City Marquette 52-29.  We lost to Michigan City (regular) though, but it was close!  46-42.  In one of the games, there was a whole category about “Classic Rock”.  I got 6/10, and my team got the other 2.  8/10 in one of those categories is really good.  I also got two other classic rock questions that were a bonus.  “That were bonuses”?  Whatever.  It wanted to know who sang 1) “Fun, Fun, Fun” and 2) “Sittin’ On the Dock of a Bay”.  Obviously, it’s the Beach Boys and Otis Redding.  Duh!  I felt smart and useful.

We went to Steak and Shake for food.  It was actually the first time I’d ever eaten at a Steak and Shake.  It was strange because I was the only person out of 10 who didn’t have a milk shake.  I hadn’t had one before…, which seems unbelieveable, but it’s true!  We had to leave a tip though, which is the embarrasing part.  I can’t do math, so I thought 15% of $6.18 was $0.06.  I left two dimes.  So, sorry, Steak and Shake waitress.  I can’t do math.

I’ve talked a lot about music this month, so I thought I would continue the theme.

I noticed a while ago, that there are many songs in which grammar is totally set aside.  On closer analysis, I found that this is actually a good thing.  For instance:

In the America song “Sister Golden Hair”, there is the line “I do agree there’s times”.  From a grammatical standpoint, this line is erred.  There is times?  It should be: there are times.  It’s simple subject-verb agreement.  But, if it was said in that correct manner in the song, an extra syllable would be added, which throws the song out of balance.  In this instance, erred grammar is actually a good thing.

In the Easybeats’ song “I’ll Make You Happy”, which I’m assuming everyone knows (of course…), there’s the line “does his lips taste sweeter than mine”.  Grammatically, it should be ”do his lips taste sweeter than mine”.  This time, however, it’s not a measure of syllables, but rather how it sounds.  The liaison from the S in ‘does’ carries over to the semi-silent H of ‘his’.  This liaison makes the phrase more lyrical.  (This is also the reason why French, as a whole language, is perceived as lyrical.)

This same euphonic sense holds true in the Beatles’ “I Should Have Known Better” in which the line “This could only happen to me” appears.  This is an instance of a misplaced modifier.  ‘Only’ in this phrase modifies ‘happen’; however, it should modify ‘me’.  Hence, the correct version would be: “This could happen only to me”.  Yet this is awkward to say.  The grammatically incorrect form is more common.

The only example that I have that I am “Sitting on a Fence” about occurs in Argent’s “Hold Your Head Up”.  The line “Let them burn their eyes on you moving” holds the error in this song.  (Or at least an error, for there could be errors that I am missing.)  With gerunds, the pronoun must be possessive (or the noun, depending on your word choice).  Thus, it is to be amended to “Let them burn their eyes on your moving”.  The addition of the R adds nothing, however.  No liaison, no change in syllable count, no effects with the awkward-ness of speaking it. 

In any case, one thing is perfectly clear: I care about grammar too much.

I’ve made a new rule for my Saturday blog posts: they must be made only after I’ve listened to my album and watched my film.  It’s fortunate that I’ve decided this to-day too because of what happened regarding my film.

I was slated to watch Star Wars.  The first one.  In order of release though, not chronologically.  So, “A New Hope”.  I went over to my bookcase, where my DVDs are, and pulled out the case.  But the disc wasn’t in there.  So, here I have a dilemma.  What do I do?  I looked in my CDs holders to see if, perchance, it was in there (ironically, one of my CD holders is the shape of Darth Vader’s helmet).  It wasn’t.  But then, I have an idea.  So I go downstairs and find the copy I have on video cassette.  I watched it on my VHS player.  Though I did find the disc before I watched the tape.  It was in a stack of discs relating to my computer (along with the discs for Battlefront I & II as well as Hasbro’s Monopoly).  I felt good watching it on VHS though.  To make them feel that they are not totally obsolete.  I did have to rewind the tape though, otherwise I would have started the movie when Luke and Han are debating whether to go to the detention ward.  And watching it on VHS lent me the rediscovery of a George Lucas interview proceeding the film. 

My album was “America” by America, their self-title debut.  I didn’t know this when I bought it though.  This album was one that I shall have to listen to a second time (or perhaps a third time) in order to gain an opinion of though.  It has “A Horse with No Name” on it, to divulge the famous song, as well as “Sandman” and “I Need You”.  The three of these I was familiar with due to America’s “Complete Hits” CD, which I’m listening to now.  In fact, the only reason I finally discovered America (the band, not the country, I didn’t discover that) was Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille.  I’d heard “Sister Golden Hair” on the radio a multitude of times, but I didn’t know the name of either the song nor the artist.  In Cowboy Feng, there is a line that alludes to the song, followed by “Sister Goldenhair… by America” (sic).  This shed light on the song.  I later checked out a CD by America from the library (where I’d found Cowboy Feng as well).  That CD was “Complete Hits”, which I later bought.

Libraries and VHS tapes are good!

I have one other development that I see fit to make a note of.  For some stupid reason (a reason comparable to my decision to do NaNoWriMo), I’ve decided to do one of NaNoWriMo’s sister events: FAWM – February Album Writing Month.  (I put ‘one of’ because there are more NaNoWriMo sister events.  Besides FAWM, there is also Script Frenzy in April.  I don’t know what other cool things there are, however.)  The object of FAWM is to write an album of songs in February.  14 songs total.  This is kind of like my own semi-serious New Year’s resolution of writing a song every month.  These songs (if I even get to the stage of plurals) won’t be as polished as those.  I finished my song for this month: “OPEC”, yes, named after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Oh, protons engender chemistry

& Ohm portrays excellent c’lamities

Orange people emit carotin

& old people enter chimneys

Old pangs enter closley

& Olympus proves extremely cosy

Odd pictures exist cleverly

Orbiting pillows emit chicanery

   O-P-E-C

   Organisation of Petroleum

   Exporting Countries

   Or producing excessive carbon

   Our peace-extinguishing cannon

Orbiting planets, extraterrestial creations

Or palindromes, empyreal concoctions

Optical practise effuses concentration

Octagonal pieces enter creation

   On plastic enormous crosses

   Our paternal enactment clauses

   Or providing endangered camels

   On passive editing channels

Oh, protons engender chemistry

& Ohm portrays excellent c’lamities

Orange people emit carotin

& old people enter chimneys

The song is basically how an obsession with oil and cars and power and everything is a detriment toward other parts of life.  For instance, “old people enter[ing] chimneys” and “Olympus proves extremely cosy” refer to cremation and death, later to find that life in other places, Olympus, is much better.  “Octagonal pieces” refer to stop signs, a necessary means for automobiles.  “Producing excessive carbon” also relates to automobiles.  “Endangered camels” possibly refers to the situation in the Middle East, how a thirst for oil takes precedence over wildlife.  (I say “possibly” because it wasn’t really I who wrote the song; it’s just how the words fit together.  It’s not my fault that camels start with “C”.  Many other lines have meanings like this, but I’m too lazy to find them all.  It’s also difficult to find different phrases meaning “refers to”, “relates to”, “implys”, &c.

I’m relatively sure that my song for February will relate to the Day the Music Died – 3 February.  I’m not sure to count that for my half-lution or my FAWM or both or what.