Friday, April 24, 2009

Say What?

I just learned some interesting tidbits and I feel I have to share them.

"Hell have no fury like a Woman scorned" is a misquotation. The actual line is "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

"Music has charms to soothe the savage beast" is also a misquotation. The real line is "Music has charms to soothe the savage breast." Both of these quotes come from the works of William Congreve. Apparently he was quite adept as a wordsmith and yet no one listened very closely.

While I'm on this kick I might as well do a couple more.

"Pride comes before a fall" is really "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

"Money is the root of all evil" is actually "For the love of money is the root of all evil...". I'll admit they are close, but I think the connotations are quite different.

And you know what? Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Although he has said "Elementary" and he has said "Watson". I'm also reasonably confident he has also said "My dear" at some point as well. Just never in conjunction.

It all makes you wonder how these things get started.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I'm Trying to Try

I felt bad that I haven't posted any comics recently so I've finally broke down and will throw this one up. I did it in class when I should have been learning. Well I was partially learning and thus my knowledge and this comic are both sub par. I have no idea why the man was so sweaty. Nor do I know why he was buying/eating so many peanuts. Maybe he had an infection that could only be fought with peanuts and the sweating was because of his immune system trying to fight it off.


So college is almost over for me...well as long as I don't fail anything. I sure hope I don't fail anything. However, such an event makes me think about life. In case you hadn't realized it yet, these types of thoughts never go well. I've realized that if I have one fear it is the fear of failing. I'm so scared that I'll fail that I don't try. I think that I'll try more. After all I've been discovering that trying and failing is much better than regretting you never tried. I believe there was a good XKCD about that.

"We descend so easily/
Give it up for short-term memory/
Fight your nature if you can/
Hope for heaven where we land."
-Halloween, Alaska's "All The Arms Around You"

Monday, April 20, 2009

A Philosophic Story of S's

One time a few weeks ago I was sitting on the toilet thinking random thoughts to while away my forced time there when I began to wonder how long I could go only using words that began with a particular letter. For one reason or another I settled on the letter S. After I was finished in the bathroom I began working on it, but promptly grew bored and went to do something else. Tonight while searching for a good way to procrastinate on homework I remembered it and decided to finish it up.

Sunday, 6:16
    Susan slowly strolls southward. Stratospheric stains spawn seraphic sunsets soliciting sentiment. She sighs. Suns sets, space spins, Susan speculates. Should souls still seek shape? Should skeletons still seek substance? Susan's Skeletal soul seeks sapience. Sidewalk skirting shrubs seem sick. Silently spoiling. Surroundings so stark stop saplings' successful sprouting. Susan's soul selfsame? She sees Saint Simon's Sanctuary's steeple surpassing sky. Sacrosanct scriptures seep solutions superfluously. Still...spirituality seems suitable sometimes, so sacrilegious speculations simply stall sagacity. "Stupid sentience" she says softly.

As silly as it is it took freaking forever. It is really hard trying to put sentences together without being able to use words like And, But, Or, With, The, Be, A, etc. I could have probably put even more work into improving it and yet even I think that would probably be a waste of time for such a silly project.

In other news: I can't wait until this semester is over. It is way too stressful and there is way too much to do. Despite all there is to work on I find myself not caring. When things like living situation, jobs, LIFE start getting into your head it is kind of hard to truly care about writing papers and the like.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Don't Put Cream In My Fruit

HELLO, JESSE.
Oh, hello brain. What's up?
IT'S AWFULLY WARM OUT AND YOU'VE BEEN WALKING FOR SOME TIME NOW.
Oh, it isn't so bad. Hope I don't end up too sweaty though.
YOU KNOW WHAT?
What?
YOU DESERVE A TREAT.
Hahaha don't worry about it.
NO, NO, YOU'VE BEEN WORKING HARD AND DESERVE SOMETHING.
Welllll, something fruity would be nice. Freddies is up ahead how about we stop in a get some fruity sort of drink?
YOU'RE THINKING TOO SMALL. WHAT WE NEED IS ICEES!
Icees!
THAT'S RIGHT MY LAD, ICEES. POP INTO THAT BURGER KING AND WE SHALL SUCK DOWN THAT SWEET NECTAR!
Yay! "One small-"
MAKE IT A LARGE.
"I mean one mediu-"
LARGE! THEY DON'T HAVE MEDIUM.
"Uh, I mean large cherry icee please."
"We don't have cherry. Only Coke. And Orange Cream."
"What?"
"Orange Cream"
"Orange Cream? "
GET IT. IT HAS ORANGE! ORANGE IS A FRUIT.
Cream means creamy, not fruity. I don't want a bunch of cream in my ice.
HMMM THAT IS TRUE...
"That's too weird...goodbye."
SsIiGgHh

Epilogue: Who on Earth thought it was a good business model to have icees, but not have cherry. Cherry is fucking classic! If I want to something with coke flavor I can just drink a freaking coke. I have checked out the official list of icee flavors and there are 21 flavors that would be preferable to Coke. Most of them I have never seen for sale. Others I have no idea what they are supposed to taste like. For instance: Country Red, Grapalicious, Golden Punch, Sweet-N-Tart, and Burgundy Grape. Do you know what flavor is depicted in all the pictures? Red...which is... probably cherry? I guess a lot of flavors are red and they are all delicious. Red is rad.

EDIT: I will address this question because I keep getting it: "Wouldn't an Orange Cream Icee taste like a creamsicle?" Answer: It would probably taste like you melted a creamsicle into a glass added some water and ice and then chugged it. Personally the taste might be ok, but ice cream should be solid...that's where the ICE part comes in.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Nice Weather Blues

Since it has now been delivered I am now able to show a CD cover I recently for a mix CD my cousin Melinda requested. Technically this is the piece that became the CD cover, the colors got dulled&darkened out in the printed version and I much prefer it as it is shown here. I also continued my tradition of using anagrams of the recipients name as the title for mixes. Well, it isn't really a tradition. I've only done it a couple other times. In case you're curious the others were "A Bio Map Memory" and "Clean Air Pillow Rain". I didn't think to take pictures of those so they are lost to the ages. I'm pretty sure they weren't very good though.

I doodled all over the box I sent it in as well, but I didn't bother taking a picture as it was already very late and the mail room was about to close. However, Melinda did the hard part for me. A round of applause for her hard work.

In other news I really should stop reading for fun, but it is just so hard. Interesting books just keep landing in my lap and I just have to seek out the treasures they contain. They have also inspired me to keep track of all the new words I learn. In order to better cement them into my brain I shall post them up here so you can, (A) feel superior in already knowing it or, (B) learn something new. Today I learned the word:

Sclera -
The outer or "white part" of the eye.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

I Locked Myself Out..Again

In a change of pace I now find myself putzing about on a computer other than my own. You see I have locked myself out of my apartment. Even worse this is the second time today this has happened. While unfortunate for me, you've lucked out as it has provided me a reason to write a post.

        I think comics and cartoons have ruined any appreciation for fine art I might have had. I went to the showing of the senior art projects to see what a couple art major friends of mine had come up with. Everything there seemed very arty and yet nothing there really caught my eye. Don't get me wrong the pieces were technically outstanding. However, my love for comics and cartoons has caused me to look for something very specific in art. I'm not sure what this is exactly, but it something like personal expression. I like to be able to look at something and to see something from the eyes of the artist. Straight from their minds to my eyes. Art's ability to let us get a glimpse into other people's imaginations is one of the things I like so much about it.
        Being able to create a paragon of artistic technique is one thing, but using that technique to create something unique is something else all together. The reason I hated the drawing class I took at college was its focus on technique without room for expression. Sure technique is important, and something I greatly lack, but I don't want to create something just for the sack of creating something. If I can't express something through it then I don't see the point.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

HaHaHa...waitasecond

      I've been up all night writing this stupid thesis and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow night.

      April Fools! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...wait...that's actually true. *sigh*. T=AF² where T is truth and AF is an April Fools. You don't see many people attempting these. Probably because trying it will get you strange looks from society. No one likes too much of a good thing.

“Mark, I'm pregnant!”
“WHAT!”
“April Fools!”
“Oh...oh thank God, you scared me-”
“April Fools! Good thing you aren't the father”
“What!?”
“April Fools! You'd better get those child support checks ready asshole.”


      Mark Twain once said, “Never let school get in the way of your education.” Sadly this is exactly what I've been doing recently. If I didn't have to bother with school I could have spent today looking over some Physics ideas that have caught my attention and reading Sarah Vowell's thoughts on presidential assassins.

      Have you ever been rummaging through your memories when you suddenly realize that someone has always been right? Every once in a while I'll struggle to find some specific picture that I know I have somewhere on my computer. However, figuring out that the picture of your family and img_9403 are one and the same can take awhile. Inevitably this leads me to thinking about my ex-girlfriend Marie [name changed]. You see one day I found her going through renaming all her photos as things that actually made sense. Instead of img_9403 it might read “Family Picture”. Thus enabling her to find that picture with a quick search function. Sadly the obvious practicality of this was beyond me and I thought it was a big waste of time. Knowing myself as I do, I more than likely said so as well.
      Of course it is only now as I struggle to find pictures on my computer that I realize the brilliance of her plan. Unfortunately this provokes the thought “What else was she right about?” The short answer is “Quite a lot, in fact.” The realization of being completely outclassed by someone is a strange one. It is made even stranger when they are your ex. This, in turn, is made even stranger when you were the dumper. Although when you consider that I failed to see the obviously usefulness of basic organization it really isn't that strange.
      So Miss Marie, I shall take this moment to say “You were right”. You have been added to my list of people whose thought processes have long ago ascended into the higher planes while mine continue to play in the mud. There are just some people you should never argue with. After all you know they're going to be right.