English Draft

…our head spins and we think, ”Would [I] have done the same?”

We learn from such stories because unlike the character on paper, we [are sometimes privileged to] know more, and can clearly see the repercussions that every decision could make.

After reading dozens of books and stories, sometimes situations come along that are exactly like those depicted. We think back, what did the character do? And what happened to them?

Reading adds years of experience in the span of an hour. We learn a bit about how life works. Of course there are no wizards or trolls or talking polar bears in real life. But the real message is there; if we know where to look. It’s in between the lines.

More often than not, books are written to tackle certain issues. For instance, Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was written (to handle the issue of slavery.)

Sometimes the author is gracious enough to spell out things for us, thereby sparing us the tedious task of dissecting the words to find the nuggets of wisdom carefully engraved in them.

(I don’t mean to end this piece with a cliché, but it just seems so fitting to say,

Reading gives knowledge, and with knowledge comes power.)

Harry Potter and Lyra Belacqua

I’m sure this has happened to you a couple of times when you were a child:

You’re sitting in your room, huddled in your bed, reading the new issue of your favourite fantasy book. And then an adult walks in and snatches the book right out of your hands. “Why are you reading this rubbish? You won’t learn anything from this. Here; read this instead.” You stare in horror as the adult then pulls out a science (or a math) textbook, which they then place into your trembling hands.

I beg to differ. I think children should be allowed to read whatever reading material they want. It trains their imagination

(You are now a blog post)

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THE STORY BEHIND THIS:

I'm cleaning up the old files on my school laptop... erasing the useless stuff and archiving the useful ones, shit like that.

Then I came across that. And I knew I just had to post it. I mean, it was practically a message to my future self (aka: the Me now).

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Today I went to a Karate class.

It was awesome.

The teacher was Malaysian. I like him already.

Definitely coming back.

Now I must leave. I switched this computer on just so I could watch The Daily Show.

I'm tired. I spent nearly two hours today running around a football field chasing a ball.

[EDIT: And in my tiredness I completely forgot to post a quote. If I'm so tired why'd I come back then? Well I'm a creature of tradition and shite like that. Don't even get me started on what happens when one disturbs my daily walk of meditation.

I'll just pull off a quote from the top of my head.]

Do you have any idea how fat you actually are - do you?? No you don't! Because your face is an island trapped in a sea of flab!!
-Dylan Moran

My mind scares me.

Nuggets

I have loads of homework.

So naturally, I'm overflowing with blog postings and such.

My Philosophy teacher said the other day (regarding communism)

People set a goal. "There, we'll go there," they say. And it's a beautiful goal. But what happens is, as they walk towards that goal, they hack down everything and everyone that stands in their way. So in the end, they change. They're not the same people who started out on the journey.

Technically he wasn't our teacher, so much as a substitute, but who cares? The man's brilliant. I hope he stays forever.

Hmm, I know I came up with something else today. I just can't remember it right now.

This is why I need to have a pen beside me at all times.

But anyway, that quote stirs up something deep within me.

It speaks truth.

Comptine d'un autre été: L'après-midi is a beautiful song. Or a piano piece, rather. Beautiful.

Why must I have these philosophical moods whenever I have to do homework?? Every single time. Damn. It would be fine if I were doing my actual PHILOSOPHY homework, but no!

Actually, I like it. So I shouldn't be complaining. But still.

Right. I can't think of anything right now. I'll be back later, I guess.

Quote is above.

Even in Death is one bloody good song too. Shame on you if you haven't heard it yet.

A Sword

I bought my first sword today.

Yay!

It's not sharp, but that's cool. Because giving me a sharp sword would be a very, very bad idea.

Also, Pirates of The Caribbean was on TV. All 3. I know I complained about movie 3, but it's actually not that bad when you watch it again. Mainly the giant woman thingie. I get everything now.

And what was the name of that background music during the whole leave-Jack-behind-and-let-the-Krakan-have-him scene? That was oddly familiar. I think it was used in HxH, as an accompanying theme to The Zaoldyecks. Therefore, I must have it.

Pictures of the sword shall be up tomorrow. Maybe. I'm not making any promises.

The pen may be mightier than the sword. But the pen cannot chop your enemy's head off.
- The Crazy Authoress

The Show That Shall Be...

I am so tired.

I feel like just dropping onto my bed and sleeping. Sleep the rest of the day away. Until tomorrow. Or even next week.

The worst part is that no matter how tired I am in the afternoon, I can't fall asleep until after 11 pm. It's madness.

What was I gonna type here?

Oh yeah. CSI.

I love that show. I really do. It's one of the shows that I really really treasure.

But now the #1 reason for me loving the show is leaving.

First the GSR part disappears. Fine. I handled that pretty well... Okay, so I lamented about it for a couple of weeks, but feck if anyone cares.

But Gil... now Gil is gonna go away.

Not fair.

William Petersen, you better have a good explanation.

I can't be everywhere, and they banned human cloning.
- Gil Grissom

Today

First day of school today.

Same old shite. Class schedules, disgruntled students with half their consciousness still trapped in the vortex of Vacation, new teachers, first years obviously lost inside the campus grounds.

But my class from last year is still mostly intact, which is good. We lost 3 people, and gained 4. I also met an exchange student from Italy. I shall be keeping an eye on her.

Oh, and I'm very relieved that I won't be teaching Japanese this year. That's one responsibility off my back. Yay!

Ever since I started that Church of Aragorn, things started to look up. Maybe I'm onto something here.

Although, I checked Demonbaby today, and it's on hiatus. I screamed, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Sadness.

Who else will do the (articulate) ranting for me, Rob? WHO??

And I've still got anger issues. That has to be sorted out. Preferably in the near future.

Oh and I borrowed The Hobbit today, from the school library. I said I'd read it today, but I mostly relaxed and dealt with paperwork when I got home... so. Ah well.

Oh, and the supposed 'heirs' of The Knight Templars are suing the catholic church for $150 billion. For 'assets seized by the catholic church seven centuries ago.'

I must say - I support their cause. But they're doing it wrong. They look like nutters, using that approach. They should've sued for pain and suffering instead. Although, would that work? I don't know.

Good luck to them.

To err is human; to forgive highly unlikely.

PS: I forgot to mention that Stupid Classmate is still in my class! So we might be blessed with more of her Words of Zen soon.

I'm still bored

I'm still bored. I've got loads of things I must do, but I'm still bored. It's the worst kind of bored. Loads of stuff to finish, but I don't feel like finishing them.

I realized last night that I still had a fair amount of unhealthy anger left in me. If this anger were money, Bill Gates would weep in envy. But no, that's probably too much. Oprah then. Oprah would be envious.

Point is, I've got anger issues. At times, the rage bubbles to the surface in a flash. It nearly topples me over. And then it disappears. Well, it doesn't really disappear... it just goes away, somewhere else.

Perhaps I should put the anger to better use.

School. School.

I do NOT want to go. At least not yet. Where did my vacation go? It's a bit amusing/funny/ironic. I couldn't wait for my summer vacation to start, and when it started, I found myself sitting bored - wondering when it would end. Now I'm desperately clutching on. Hoping that somehow the hours shall be slow in their passing.

I'm tempted to insert a Gandalf quote in here. But I won't. Instead I shall go back to highlighting the important passages.

All of the things that relate to Aragorn are highlighted in green. It's helpful reference for the church.
Others are in purple.
The Sam/Frodo things are highlighted in orange. I couldn't resist.

So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us.
- Gandalf

So I lied. Sue me.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken...

A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Hail Elessar!

But sadly, even though the title is a line from The Riddle of Strider, I use it not to refer to him. I'm actually thinking of the impending responsibilities and various other duties that I have to face.

I quake in anticipation of the heavy workload that is about to be dumped on me. May the pouring be gentle.

But on a different, happier note - I dreamed of MonaBoyd last night!!! YAY!
I dreamed I hugged them. Both!! A MonaBoyd hug! The elation and the actual, indescribable emotion that coursed through my veins when I hugged them still lingers. I smile.

And I've decided to resurrect an old tradition from when I started blogging. A quote, I shall end with one.
I guess this is only fair because I've stopped using the "Date & Mood" header.

I know I should forget, but I can't.
- 'Foundations', Kate Nash

We're Building A Bridge...

...but we don't have any river.

Dylan Moran, ladies and gentlemen. I love that guy.

Anyway, I've been going through my logs, and I saw that I've casually mentioned The Church of Aragorn a few times. But I've never really gone in depth or anything. Not even a link! Shame.

So here it is.

The Church of Aragorn. Dare I say, The *First* Church of Aragorn?

View and JOIN! Although I haven't actually put up a mailing list yet... I'll get to it.

Panic Mode

I have school next week. So I'm cleaning my room.
I don't think I'm ready yet. Gah! Now I feel as though I'm gasping for air before the great plunge. (Thankee Gandalf.)

I made a church for Aragorn. Have I mentioned that before?

Oh, and I am now a level 34 human vampire scholar on AdventureQuest. Quite addictive, I must say.

Now back to work!

A Rough Outline of Things

So I noticed that I've been filled with a lot of anger recently. It does sometimes switch back and forth from anger to a more depressed state. But anyway, due to a little prompting from my mother, I thought I'd make this list. Mostly because the amount of anger coursing through my system right now is unhealthy. Scarily unhealthy.

No particular order. I'll only elaborate or state specifics when and if I feel like it.

Things I LIKE/LOVE

1. The Lord of The Rings
2. Aragorn
   
3. Webcomics
4. Barack Obama
5. Anime
6. Japan
7. Food
8. Ferrero Rocher
9. Strawberry daiquiris
10. Stand-up comedy
11. Satire
12. The Daily Show
13. MonaBoyd
14. Asian stuff
    
15. Fantasy novels
16. Rock music
17. Classical music
18. Romanticism
19. Medievalism
20. The Raven
21. Ancient history
22. Ancient civilizations
23. Philosophy
24. Psychology
25. Mythology
    
26. Dark, morbid, Gothic literature
27. Dark, morbid, angsty, Gothic music
28. Guitar solos that scream out my angst (Listen to 'Even in Death' by Evanescence, and you'll see what I mean.)
    
29. Yaoi. 'Nuff said.
30. Anime/Comic cons
31. Brangelina
32. Imagination and daydreams
    
33. Iced Coffee
34. Green, and Black, and Purple, and Silver, and Red

Things I HATE and would like to burn

Because "I don't have pet peeves, I have major psychotic fucking hatreds."

1. Chain letters
2. Religion
3. Paris Hilton (although her recent response to the old man's ad has upped my respect a bit. She now stands above dung.)
   
4. John McCain (fucking do the world a favor and die of a heart attack)
   
5. George Bush (go die in your own war, motherfucker)
   
6. Most of the Republican party
7. Hannah Montana
8. High School musical
9. Dr Phil
   
10. Hip hop
11. Extremely emo people
12. Social gatherings
13. Jocks
14. Preps
15. Cheerleaders
    
16. Circumstances
17. Sunny days
18. The color pink (I'm willing to accept pink Cherry Blossoms, and strawberry in milk)
    
19. Unnervingly happy, chirpy people
20. Children (I merely dislike them though. I wouldn't really set fire to them... maybe.)
21. Bullies (funny how they all fall the same way when you kick them in the nuts)
22. Spammers
23. Spam
24. Fox news
25. War
26. Myself. Or THAT part of myself.
    
27. Stupid people who speak and act without thinking
28. Hypocrites
29. Religious hypocrites (aren't they all though...)
    
30. Evangelicals
31. Suckers of positive energy
    

That's all I can come up with right now. To write down the entire list right here and now would be too inconceivable. Let's leave some for later.