People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.
-Kurt Vonnegut

I thought this quote applicable for several reasons.

R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut. Dear Sir, you were one of two authors who could get away with saying absolutely anything.

On to this Don Imus thing. What. the. hell.

First, what Imus said was, admittedly, stupid. Rather, so incredibly stupid it's hard for the moderately intelligent to comprehend. However, there is one basic reaction I have:

As a member of the media and an advocate of the marketplace of ideas, I think all of this reaction is fantastic. A blog powered by the Detroit Free Press makes a fantastic point about it. Read this article.

Read some Vonnegut, watch about 15 minutes of the news. Start talking, but don't yell.

That's all I've got.

"I wrote the gospel on giving up. You look pretty sinking. But the real bombshells have already sunk prima-donnas of the gutter"
-Fall Out Boy, This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race

Oh man.

I am such a cliche and I don't even care. Fall Out Boy's new album comes out in Feb. and I am so excited. So excited, in fact, that I am blogging about it and using their lyrics.

No, I'm not a cliche, I'm a loser...

Aw....

BUT I am a loser who is still excited about their new album. You can all bite me, I have good taste in music that offsets this dirty little secret I have. It's a sickness, but I'm really okay with that.

The semester is done and I am pretty excited about that, except I kind of lost track of time toward the end and that kind of messed with my head, but could have been worse. I'll wait until I get grades to say whether I was an idiot and got distracted by things I probably shouldn't have gotten distracted by. Danged distractions.

Now for the news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/world/americas/18cuba.html
Does it sound like to anyone else that Castro is going around saying "I'm not dead yet! I want to go for a walk! I feel happy!" Except that no one's seen him in weeks. This is going to turn into the Cuban version of Weekend at Bernie's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6187113.stm
This might have been the most brilliant thing I've seen all week. Although, those that participate in the Internet have been put on the same plane as Hitler. Just something to think about. On a more serious note, the idea of recognizing the Internet for the contributions of the many for the even more is really interesting. I still don't think bloggers are journalists, but the exchange of information over the internet is something that has become increasingly imperative in the average (particularly) American's life. I have the feeling that the editors were sitting around beating their heads against their desks trying to figure out who to make their person of the year and someone had this idea in a moment of clarity. They probably got the idea from some intern they caught watching the Diet Coke and Mentos trick in YouTube. The intern was probably fired. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121501743.html
Hahahaha. Just read it. The mental picture is fantastic.

That is all for now. I hope you're all happy, although, I did enjoy the comments I received in my short absence. I am home for the break and will probably be posting more often. Until then, good evening and I'll catch you hep cats on the flip side.

"People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening. People writing songs that voices never share. And no one dared disturb the sound of silence."
-Simon and Garfunkel, Sound of Silence

So, I've been threatened and cajoled to post again.

Great.

This isn't going to turn out well.

I should be doing something constructive. I am, however, not accomplishing that. I am really quite proud of myself for doing nothing that has any impact on my scholastic career. Like the projects I have due or the papers I should be writing.

I am so uninspired. I'll update more later. I know, I know, I am probably going to rot in Oklahoma, A.A.

"I don't even know what I liked about you, brought you around and you just brought me down."
-Plain White T's Hate (I Really Don't Like You)

That wasn't supposed to come out that emo.

Whatever. Take it at face. The song is great, if not a little sad bastardly.

Election night. I wonder how it's going to turn out. I also wonder what all the pseudo-intellectuals are going to do afterward. It's kind of early to start considering the President '08 race, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The Olympics will be on. Which is really all that matters. I mean honestly...

I've discovered something about myself: I'm an idiot. No, really. I'm sure most of you knew this already, but I have finally come to the conclusion on my own. I would like to think that I am fairly intelligent when it comes to scholarly pursuits, but in the real world, I am totally incapable of functioning. I can pay my own bills and remember when to go somewhere, but interacting with people and making choices that aren't going to turn me into some pathetic whiner...now there is the problem.

Oh well, I'm in college, I can be a whiner, gosh darn it.

Eh.

I don't have much to comment on, sorry for the lame post. I'm not feeling terribly inspired--I think it's the Plain White T's and the Fiona Apple...

"So await for the stone on your window, your window. Await by the car and we'll go, we'll go."
-Decemberists, O Valencia

Just for notice, I am not posting that memories note on facebook because I tend to do stupid things sometimes and people tend to remember these lapses in judgment, rather than times when I was awesome. So they would probably post the stupid rather than the awesome and I just couldn't handle that. And I think it's kind of awkward.

That is really pretty much it...it's raining and I am reading about globalization. Is it good? Is it bad? I can't really tell what I am supposed to think because the author of this book is such an extraordinarily poor writer. (I would say the name, but apparently bloggers can sometimes be considered journalists and I think that might be infringing on some libel laws...that was sarcasm, for those of you who can't read it.)

Bloggers aren't journalists. But that was a former post. I'll let it lie.

Anyway, globalization doesn't seem to be a terrible thing, except for the preservation of culture. If, as this book contends, we were all to be more concerned with how our actions affected eachother, the world would probably be a better place. However, I still see the homoginization that I suppose is kind of stereotypical of globalization. We're all walking around with Gap t-shirts on, heading to the local neighborhood Wal-Mart.

Half empty or half full? I (along with several other people, probably) say, "depends on what's in the glass." I am going to go ahead and say half full....for now. Ask me later.

"You remind me of home, the paint cracks when the water leaks from the rusty pipes that are just beneath my feet."
-Ben Gibbard, You Remind Me of Home

I have been cleaning all day, so I am going to do something fun! (or something that doesn't require me to be soapy and scrubbing something)

I am making a list. Woo!

A list off the top of my head of songs that are a story. Songs that have a general concrete meaning from my iTunes. I don't listen to country, so this task was harder than one might think.

Notes: Tenacious D was disqualified because that is just too easy. Also, songs from musicals were as well for the same reason.

(In no particular order)

Yellow Submarine, The Beatles - Really, most of the Beatles songs are a story heck, they have an entire album that was made into a weird rock opera. I watched Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees once. It blew my mind. In a bad way.

The General, Dispatch - I like this one, it's an interesting study about a man who has been in the military his entire life, but before this one battle, he tells his men that "I have seen the others and I have discovered that this fight is not worth fighting." Makes you think about your belief system and what would happen if it were deflated.

Hurricane, Bob Dylan - I like this one because Bob Dylan rocks out with a fiddle. And he isn't afraid to be politically incorrect. What the heck am I talking about, it's Bob Dylan...but the song is good (long, but good) and it tells a cool story.

Tiny Vessels, Death Cab for Cutie - This one is a conundrum for me because Ben Gibbard writes such bleeding heart lyrics and seems like the sweetest guy imaginable. Then he goes and talks about how he slept with this girl that didn't mean anything to him. Maybe he's a bastard in real life. Oh Ben Gibbard, how you confuse me. "Yeah she is beautiful, but she don't mean a thing to me." You're a liar, Ben Gibbard, you're a liar.

Fourth Drink Instinct, Cute is What We Aim For - Yeah Emo bands! This song is about some poor girl who gets wasted and a guy takes advantage of her. The song doesn't feel sorry for her, which is nice because it is of her own doing. "She thought she could buy happiness by the bottle."

Hotel California, The Eagles - A trippy story if I ever heard one. I know it means something other than a guy checking in to a freaky hotel, but I still haven't figured it out after listening to it for 19 years. The Gypsy Kings do an angry, Spanish version of this song, but I don't understand it any better en Espanol.

Keep it Together, Guster - a strangely revolutionary song. "When we all had finally washed ashore, it was clear there was no one else around. We declared a national holiday, a chance to built it from the ground."

Lighthouse, The Hush Sound - Woah. There is a lighthouse and a ghost and the ghost has a story and then the narrator and their partner get caught in the lighthouse the same way and they end up ghosts. Sad and weird at the same time. Makes me never want to visit a lighthouse. Good thing I live in Kansas.

Take Your Mama, The Scissor Sisters - I am pretty sure this is about a guy telling his mom he bats for the other team. My mom likes to blare it when we are going past the Phelps' demonstrations. Irony makes me feel good inside.

Rhiannon, Fleetwood Mac - This song I am partial to because it is kind of my namesake, but it's about a witch. Which leads to soooo many jokes that I am sure you are all running through in your head. Shut up.

Honorable mention: If I had $1,000,000, Barenaked Ladies - a good story song, but doesn't quite form a coherent story.

Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band - Perfect story song, but I don't have it on my iTunes, so it doesn't fit part of the title of the list.

"Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame. For somethin' that he never done. Put in a prison cell but one time he coulda been the champion of the world."
-Bob Dylan, Hurricane

Eh, you have days like that.

Only his was probably worse than yours.

Just saying.

Anyway, I recently aquired mallowcreme pumpkins. Someone take them away from me. Please, they will be the reason for my diabetes.

I am pretty sure my sister is one of the funniest people--ever. Good call with "You must do this layout again, young Padawan." I about cried when I read that.

Today is a short day so I can get in my nap and a workout--I am just a mass of contradictions.

Funniest thing this week:
-"My boyfriend is getting out of prison at 11:30, he wants Pizza Hut for lunch."

Good day all, take it easy and enjoy the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon and the stars above. Props to whoever gets that song reference.