So I started re-reading Catch-22 last night, and about halfway into the second chapter I read the following sentence: “They hated him because he was Assyrian.”
God Damn It, Miles!
Yossarian isn’t Armenian, he’s Assyrian! The author says that he’s Assyrian again a little later on in the book. Do you know what this means?
THIS MEANS THAT THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN CATCH-22 AND THE LEAD SINGER OF SYSTEM OF A DOWN!!
Which, in turn, means that your argument about how System of a Down (fronted by an Armenian) had more #1 hits than Van Halen was completely pointless and unrelated to anything ever.
So I know most of our plans for the next year are pretty clear- Finish up PCC/Grad School, Get another job, don’t get run over by a bus, etc. What I’m wondering is what people’s hopes and plans for the next five or ten years are. Don’t give me shit about how you don’t plan that far ahead or are “living in the moment” or whatever. You’re not six years old. You think about things like this and I know it.
As for me, I’ve been thinking about applying to an International High School in Japan and working there for a year or two immediately after I finish becoming a Master. I’ve been a little hesitant about living in Japan before, but I feel like I’m ready for it now. Actually, I feel more than ready- I almost need to live in Japan for a while, as my language skills will best improve by living there and I feel a little weird knowing so much about a culture that I’ve never really been a part of. Kyla said she could commit to living in Japan for 6-9 months of the year when I’m there, so that’s not much of an issue, and I should be able to get a decent job in Japan and do a bit of traveling- see some religious sites in Kyoto and Nagasaki, take part in some Shinto rituals first-hand, etc. It feels like something that I’ve been preparing for a long time to do.
So I just saw Alien and Aliens and I can’t help but think that they are the most racist movies ever made. The first one is about a big black penis monster trying to impregnate a white woman, and the second is about adopting a child from an “alien” colony and trying to wipe out all signs of her homeland- including killing everyone else from that colony, her metaphorical “brothers” and “mother- in order to wipe the “dirt” away from her face and make her white.
Am I wrong? What do you guys think was the most racist movie ever made? And don’t say Star Wars: Episode One, because Alien was hella more xenophobic than that.
Since peeps were having troubles downloading my paper and since I’d love some feedback (on account of it took a lot of research and is 90% or something like that of my grade), I just copied and pasted it onto the site. You can read it below by clicking
I just finished my big research paper that I have to do to get a second BA in History and would love it if you guys could read it over real quick. It’s due Thursday, so if you could send me some notes by either Wednesday night or Thursday morning it would help me out a lot. I’m looking for help making sure everything is easy enough to understand (though, being an academic paper, there’s only a certain amount of readability possible) and checking for any spelling/grammar mistakes I may have overlooked.
If you ignore the fact that there are a shitload of footnotes cluttering up the thing, this could actually be something a lot of you guys might find interesting. It’s about the Jesuit mission in Japan and their conflicts with the Buddhists and the Shogunate. The main characters from James Clavell’s Shogun all show up in it, except for the chick and the ninjas at the end. So there’s that. It’s a little longer than it needs to be (25 pages, double spaced), but too short for me to submit it as an Honor’s Thesis unless I want to put another term of work into it (which I don’t).
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so here it is. Most of these books are things that I read to study for the comprehensive Language Arts exam I did a few weeks ago.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Have you heard of it? It’s about the wonders of modern society and how fun it would be to go on a cruise in the Congo.
Okay, I need to know if this works for you guys (specifically Warren/Alan/Jareddddd), as Geoff said that he couldn’t do Friday and Saturday works better for me. Maybe then even Miles could cum?
Following Jared’s comment to my Gorillaz post, where he asked for some good rap songs to listen to with his ears, this post is all about my favorite rap songs (aka rappongs). I’ve tried to keep the list somewhat short so that people have time to listen to all the songs I’m putting up, because I really do think that every track I’m linking to is worth at least one listen to see if you like it. Of course, this is just personal taste- you guys might hate all of it.
Generally, there are three things that I think makes for a good rap song: a good backbeat, an interesting voice, and either smart lyrics or at least a sense of humor. Honestly, I think rap is probably the best genre for humor songs (because it’s so lyrically driven) and a lot of people don’t realize that a lot of the talking about bitches or guns or whatever is intended to be sarcastic/humorous.
Also, I don’t think liking or not liking rap is any proof of racism or the lack thereof. Listen to these lyrics by Jay-Z (from Girls, Girls, Girls): “I got this Indian squaw, first day I met her/ I asked her what tribe she with, red dot or feather…I got this Chinese chick, had to leave her quick/’cause she kept bootlegging my shit!” See- Rap is perfect for racists.
That’s a line from the new Gorillaz album, I think. I’ve listened to the whole thing a few times and don’t really know what’s the point to half of it. What are your thoughts on this album, my friends? Favorite tracks? Parts you hated? There were some great songs on it, but large parts of it also felt like some ADHD-inspired mixtape.
HEY, CLICK ON THIS “READ MORE” BUTTON IF YOU WANT TO READ SOME BULLSHIT, MAN!!
Alan wants to boogaloo all up inside Tony Stark on Friday the 7th. We could buy tickets early. All I live for is Iron Man. Who do I have to have the sex with to get everybody to go to this? Shall we find a better place than that shithole in Tualatin? Wait- You guys talk now. I’m too excited. One might even say “two excited”…because of Iron Man Too!
To me, my X-Men! We are all gonna be in town at some point this weekend, but people are gonna be somewhat busy. I know that Geoff is working until 10:00 and has some stuff to do in the morning, but are he and Warren able to come out by 11:00 or so? If not, we might be able to do it in the morning before Miles and I take off but either before or after Geoff feeds his aunt.
Hey, all. I’m thinking of heading up to town this weekend after I get off work so that I can hang out with you all. I know that Miles is gonna be in town, and from what I hear, Alan is running back to bear country pretty soon, so we should definitely all get together and get tipsy and feel Miles up. I don’t know about that last part, but the rest seems like a good idea.
Anyway, the catch to all this is that I’m going to need to know if this is a plan AND if I can get a ride back to Eugene before I ask for work off on Sunday. I can ride a bus up there, but the ride back would cost a lot of money and I’d rather not spend 60 dollars or more total on travel for just one night… so if Miles or Alan have the time or if Warren or Geoff or Jared want to visit Eugene, that would be awesome. I need to be back by 10am on Monday and can pitch in for gas.
Also, life is swell. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.
Hey, chillins. I realized that it’s been a while since I posted about which books I’ve been reading, so here is the long-awaited sequel to my post from a few months ago. Like before, these are only books that I either read all of or attempted to read (i.e. didn’t skim or just glance over for school), starting from around New Year’s.
The Western Canon (by Harold Bloom)
I’m considering getting a second endorsement in Language Arts when I eventually start grad school so that I can teach in schools where Social Studies and Literature are taught as one class. In order to pass the license test for Literature, I’mma need to study up some on the western canon.
I’ve read a few books by Bloom before (Omens of Millennium, Jesus and Yahweh, and Fallen Angels), and this seemed like a perfect refresher on the history of literary criticism. His whole argument is that Shakespeare is the center of the canon, and all major works can be seen either as inspiring or being inspired by him. While this is certainly true of Chaucer, Milton, or Joyce, I’m not so convinced that this is equally true with non-British/American writers like Dante or Kafka.
