indefinitely more global power

subject: languages
style: ruminative
source: Albert

"A wise man only knows as much as he thinks he does."

I remember, in Biology (about two years ago) --at least I think it was Biology; maybe it was Health ?-- we watched a video in which a couple of linguist-pathologist-researchers were discussing the evolution of language. 'Tis a pity, they said, the way languages are disappearing so quickly from the world. A few widespread languages are taking over their own sections of the population --a few-- while the rest just fade out of common usage and wither away. Frankly, what I have to say to this is : how is that such a bad thing ?

I mean, think of it : with a million languages controlling the world, how would you describe our communicative capabilities ? Stunted, at best. But with only a dozen .. we could have indefinitely more global power. Translation would be virtually unnecessary, and communication would be more efficient than ever before. What are they worried about ?

Loss of culture ? You shouldn't need a special language to distinguish yourself from other cultures .. and if interracial marriages continue, as they should, people will have so many heritages it will be hard to keep track of them all anyhow. (Why should they ? To prevent segregation. Because I am sick and tired of stereotypes and exclusions in society. What if we're all the same race, hm ? What then ?)

Loss of history ? Hello, ever heard of an encyclopedia ? I'm sure they keep those things pretty up-to-date. If someone ever wants to learn an ancient Native American dialect, all they need do is go through a little research. Loss of experts ? Maybe .. but if they record all they know accurately, no one will ever need to consult an expert on the subject.

The Tower of Babel ? A ludicrous idea, in the first place. Even if I had read the bible, and did believe it .. I don't think I would see anything wrong with a universal language. God is not going to shun us for trying to advance ourselves through technology, or the like. I'm sure he would be proud of our efforts. And it will only bring people closer around the globe.

Anyhow, there isn't much we can do about these fading languages. It's a natural part of social (and economical) growth .. we're not about to make everyone learn six or seven extra languages (nor would anyone allow such a travesty), so all we've left to do is embrace it and move on. Take a chill pill, folks.

a pandemonic manifestation of your own imaginations

subject: Monopoly
style: rant
source: Erickson

"I am asking you to be honest .. as honest as you can be."

Why is it that at least 80% of the world's population (from experience, I mean .. I haven't actually polled) does not play the game of Monopoly correctly ? It kind of really ticks me off sometimes. There is a reason games have rules. I mean, sure, house rules are okay. I don't have a problem with putting your own touch on it. But at the same time, you have to know what the original rules are. You have to draw the line somewhere, and say: okay, this is how we're supposed to play, but we're going to play this way. When you blatantly replace the intended, innocent board game with a pandemonic manifestation of your own imaginations .. that crosses the line.

What happens when you play with friends ? With someone outside your little sphere of sodality ? Don't your rule sets conflict ? I'm sure they do. And what do you do thereupon ? You say, this is a hassle. And you put the game away. Because you are too lazy --no, worse, you are afraid-- to learn how to play correctly. Is it some sort of a blasphemy, therein, to play this sacred game with rules different from your own ?

Of course, this could be true for any game (of which you can modify the rules to your own selfish liking). But it seems to be especially common with Monopoly. I don't know what the deal is. Maybe they don't like the strict financiality of its premise. Then, I ask, why did you buy the game in the first place ? Maybe they think it takes too long to play. That, my friend, is true enough .. and is the reason Parker Brothers included rules for a shorter version. Using those would be all right; they are universally read and understood, and thus transferable amongst parties.

But no, you have to use your own creations (or those you have heard from friends, which could be much worse). $400, you say, if you land on GO. $500 (plus) for Free Parking. Oh, and you don't want to buy Atlantic ? Let's just pass it up, then. What you fail to notice, amid all the confusion (and disgruntled opponents, on the verge of quitting after you win $3,000 spontaneously), is that your rules only add to the length of the game. Your rules transmogrify a once-great game into the foolish, luck-oriented, ignorant, detestable rehash of Tiddly Winks that met its demise when everyone deemed it pointless and unfair on that Family Game Night years back. And why did they give up on it ? Because you have never played it right in the first place. (See what you have done ? It is rare, these days, to find a person decent enough to agree to sit down to Monopoly, after the rumors they've heard spread 'round about it.)

I love the game of Monopoly. Please try to not disgrace it any further. If you must play, make an effort to stick to the game itself, in its most natural and beauteous form. If that you cannot handle, I advise you to leave it alone and look elsewhere. You're not wanted here.

[ Sorry for my insistent use of the second person. I realize I may not be talking to you (though the statistics say otherwise). This is a rant, though, after all; and I didn't make any promises of formality. ]

logic, the world, and righteousness

subject: education
style: rant
source: Hoshi

"Listen when we talk to you."

If I have to give up common sense to pass the SAT, then I don't much care if I fail it. (I was about to cuss, but then I thought, I'll probably sound more credible if I don't.)

By the way, sorry to cut off the flow like this, but I have a Quick Grammar Lesson for you. I have just exemplified the full-sentence-parenthesized. This is the only time the final punctuation goes inside. If you are just inserting a parenthetical word or phrase into your sentence as a smaller part of the whole (like this), then the punctuation goes outside. They have wholly different rules from quotes'. (Notice the placement of the apostrophe, also, because it is not one of a pair but conveying the possessive.) How do I know I'm right ? I've been doing this for a long time. You can consider me a credible source.

Back to our feature presentation: If I have to give up common sense to pass the SAT, then I don't much care if I fail it. I think I know more than any of you mindless bozos the difference between what a word means and what is meant by it. There's a reason for the dictionary. What is it ? Now listen closely. To provide a standard. To give a general idea of the accepted meaning of a word in society. An unbiased denotation; a definition. The connotation is something else. That's freshman material, folks.

I quote Agnocure: "I live to write, I write to give, I give to fight, I fight to live." Notice, I don't live to be mindwashed. I don't write to practice for the big test. I don't give to be shot down. I don't fight so that your smart mouth can bit my tongue.

I live for me. I write for logic. I give for the world. I fight for righteousness. I want people to know me for me, not for who I say I am. I want to be a person. I want to be myself. I am here to learn, to apply, and to thrive. I don't care what school I go to, as long as those criteria are fulfilled.

I try my hardest to be reasonable. I volunteer to correct, to comment, to clarify. I don't want to hear you criticize my judgment and invalidate my education because I decided, out of the good of my heart, to make an unbiased suggestion. I think, since I am the only one who mastered any and/or all of the problems, I have attained a bit more credibility than you. You sit on your butt and you answer questions; then you go and say something like that, and still you expect me to help you ? I am appalled.

I may sound a bit harsh, especially cos I don't speak out much in person. But if you really make me angry, chances are you can look here cos I'm guna wana write about it. I'll just be forward .. my pen knows no limits. Happy Wednesday.

conduits for salvation from my dolor

subject: dance
style: grateful
source: Hauge

"This is the happy zone."

I love to dance. For so many reasons. I wasn't much of a dancer, until after the break-up. The first one. Then I discovered DDR (or, more accurately, was introduced to it by Ben, who I thank). If you don't know what DDR is, in this day and age, I can't help you. I'm not explaining it, so go look it up. The game was one of my few conduits for salvation from my dolor. I was instantly hooked. Even now, more than four years later, I still consider it an excellent hobby and source of exercise, not to mention an incomparable stress-reliever.

Dance is my heart and soul. It helps me recall I am alive. Ever since I joined the hip-hop classes last year, I have had that one short hour to look forward to each week, to let off a little steam. I admit I didn't make full use of this opportunity for a while; I took it for granted at first. But when my stomach is growling, and I'm failing at life, and she's come back to haunt me, and her ex has said something to tick me off, and I have, for the fifth time this month, reached my boiling point and lost my cool, that dance routine is suddenly the catholicon for my rotten green life. It gives me something to live for, an ever-constant starlight (a great song by Freezepop, who also sang Stakeout for Ultramix 3), especially when the parants --not mine, but indefinite-- are being particularly agitative and totally unreasonable, and I truly need that refuge most.

I am especially glad I have the class these days, because lately the game has been letting me down. I can't stand the noncooperation of these godforsaken dance pads. How am I supposed to AAA Heavy, when ten percent of steps on the right arrow aren't even picked up ? I need something fresh and new for once. I can't unleash my full potential until I have the means. I have the will, but no way. That is one more classic adage, proven false.

if you build it, they will come

subject : self-discovery
style : creative
source : Erickson

"I don't have to love everybody, but I need to respect everybody."

What do you do, when you know you have to be like them, and if you don't change you will fall behind ?

When at the same time, you are afraid that if you do, you will miss out on a chance to leap ahead -- to show your true colors, and to think up new prospects -- to make something new and different, because your old self was so much more different and unique -- to succeed ?

What do you do, when you know that what you have is working, but that by gaining new insights you will be forced to lose the old, by learning new skills you will forget how to use your talents -- because you cannot keep both, you cannot master the rules, the skills and strategy, of their game and of your own -- and you know, because you are not satisfied with being yourself, that you will be pressed into becoming one of them, in the hopes of profiting, of making some progress, of turning a series of losses into a win ?

When, in making this decision, you are sure it will resolve all difficulties you have had, yet you cannot rid the worry from your mind, the doubt, the deep intuition whose dimension tops the rest, which claims you will be an utter failure, either way, in one sense or the other ?

Just wondering.

a simple poem, for a simple cause

" purple heart " ~ siesta lingo ~

give me space, give me the time
i need to make me feel like i can live .
visualize the desert of my soul,
empty of emotion, now that you have
minced the false compassion i once
yearned to one day gift unto another
human fallacy . show me someone
empathetic, i will show you someone
apathetic . don't make it difficult . it's
risky, certainly, to hear your voice say
the words, to see your lips form the
answer to the question never asked .
bring me security, it's all i ask, to
rescue me from this troubled fate .
every day i wish upon my lucky star,
and every night i dream of the one
kiss that'd fill the starving void, my love .

[ think twice . think thrice . think positive .
there is always another way to look at it . ]

to prevent your soul from imploding

subject: technology / forgettance
style: creative
source: Harry Potter V, the movie

"The more you care, the more you have to lose."

No matter who you are, if you use a computer, there is a certain trust you confide in the machine. Whether you are an ardent user and bff of the computer, or a skeptic who believes technology has a conspiracy against her, you trust it to follow through in its hour of duty (.. the line of duty ? I don't know) .. and especially when you need it the very most.

You expect it to load in a reasonable amount of time. You expect it to keep your documents saved until you give it the permission to stop. You expect it to know the difference between Cancel and OK. You expect it to print your work when you tell it to. You expect it to still provide you internet access, even after a power outage. You expect it not to lag when you are running short on time. You expect it not to freeze up before you have saved your hours of work. You expect it to Auto-Recover in case it does screw up.

And when the computer refuses to hold up its end of the bargain, that is when you get frustrated. And you yell at the screen and hit it and hurt your hand. And you stay angry at the world for a while. And you get a zero on that essay you worked so hard on, and had such great plans for.

And you forget that poem that was the manifestation of everything you have felt for the past seventeen months. You lose track of the flow and the rhythm of the lines, because the computer has failed to remember. The sole difference between you two, unfortunately, is that you do not forget about it.

So you break down. And your heart screams bloody murd3rr. And you hold your head in your hands. And you cry. And, to make yourself feel better, and to prevent your soul from imploding, you blame it all on her. You are forced to overlook any bright side to the situation, for you refuse to accept the consequences of thinking about it at all. All you know is everything is her fault. If it weren't for her, well, that's another story. A love story. Because after all, you do love her.

to lie my way out of court

subject: temper
style: grateful
source: Albert

"My goal is not to lie my way out of court... My plan is to not get into court."

I didn't think I would ever say this, but thanks Yang ! (Sorry, but I refuse to call her by any other name.)

I really don't like her. I never have, and I still don't. But I owe a lot to her. She was my first D in a class, ever. She prepared me, by handing me a failing grade and virtually ha7ing my guts, for the harsh injustice of the real world. She brought out my true spite. And I am really glad she did. Because indirectly, the experience forced me to toughen up, and convinced me how important it is to succeed. If I had done well in that class, I would have remained the shy and studious, happy-go-lucky little boy who I once was. And I would have been a whole year behind in the development of my personality and my tigerosity (for lack of a better word .. which, in this day and age, should not occur as often as it does. I have encountered simply too many definitions that lack names).

After Lenna, another failure was all I needed to push me over the edge. In truth, I am thankful that I went through what I did as early as I did. It saved me a lot of trouble later on -- when I already had enough to worry about.