The End! (Or is it?)

This blog is assigned as kind of a conclusion to the semester. I am supposed to give my final thoughts on keeping a blog, advice to other students, etc. The thing is, I don't think I want this whole blog thing to end; I really enjoyed it!

I think that a blog is a very fun and interesting thing to keep, especially when you have a captive audience who is supposed to comment on your thoughts. I really enjoyed sharing my music, and spreading my political ideas around as well. I do think that students should keep a blog, and I definitely think they should comment on other student blogs as well, it's a wonderful set up.

I don't think I am going to let this blog end here, and I hope you all feel the same way. It's been a great semester, in part because of this blog. I hope that you all got as much enjoyment and information out of it as I did!

Back to the Grind (a.k.a. I was told to write this)

So, back to writing about topics mandated by my English teacher. That little angry rant was fun, but it's not really the purpose of this blog, now is it?

This assignment entails describing the town of Normal, IL. Rather, advertising it if it is worth advertising, which I really think it is. I really love this town, to be perfectly honest. I come from Champaign, and I must say that while I love my hometown to death, after eighteen years, I got a little sick of it. Normal feels like Champaign 2.0, really. Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal, they are both double-cities that still aren't that big. There's plenty to do, but it's not a big city. The campus of ISU is similarly balanced. There are enough people here, and the campus is large enough, to be a significant place for socializing and a stand-alone area, without being U of I size, meaning unwalkable.

The town itself is really nice too, though I haven't been to downtown Bloomington much. It's nice that there are places just barely off campus that offer lots of entertainment for everyone who goes here. One of the most popular among these isn't really an entertainment spot, but a place to obtain entertainment for later: The Movie Fan. It has a great selection, including a good selection of gay and lesbian films, so much so that some friends of mine used to have a "Gay Films Friday" every Friday.

Right across the street is the Normal Theater, which is a restored retro theater that plays lots of independent films; at the beginning of my Freshman year, Hot Fuzz was playing as part of a series of foreign, independent films. Hot Fuzz is my favorite movie, so how could I miss out? Today through Sunday, they are playing Milk, which I sadly have yet to see and will probably miss on this showing.

There is also the wonderful ice cream shop, Emack & Bolio. It's ice cream, what more do you want from me?

Honestly, I haven't been all over yet, but I really love this town. There is sufficient entertainment to be had without having to drive or catch a bus anywhere, and the atmosphere here is just wonderful!

Unrelated Rant

This is completely unrelated to our blog assignments, I just really felt like ranting and venting, and I figured what better place to do this than a blog, right?

So, anyway, in the process of researching for my paper, I must read sources with views opposing mine.  This is sometimes informative, and very often frustrating.  Right now, I am incredibly frustrated, having read one specific article that really rubbed me the wrong way.  After reading, I have this to say:

Why is it that no one understands how cloning works?!  Geez, this is worse than the evolution discussion!

The writer of this article suffers from a viewpoint that I have witnessed before, but that I had erroneously assumed was not very widespread.  He seems to think that therapeutic cloning will involve creating an entire human being who will then be killed for the sake of medicine or medicinal research.  This is utterly idiotic.  Therapeutic cloning involves creating organs or specific tissue.  It's not like we create a whole human being with functioning organs, take the organs we need, and go "see ya!"

Why is this totally backwards view so prevalent among pro-lifers?  Why do they use such false analogies?  I understand thinking that abortion is wrong, and to an extent, why stem cell research using embryos is therefore bad, but defend it on more solid ground, people!  It's not that hard!  Rather than attacking scientists and the well-chosen words they use to describe their fields, stick to things you know, like religion.

This writer really does equate a cluster of cells that will, if in a womb, eventually grow into a human, to a fully formed human being!  Why is this so accepted?  He uses an utterly false analogy which I shall quote for you now:

"If I have a bad eye and you have a good one, can I forcibly take your good eye to make my bad one better?"

Well, no, but this is not in any way the same as taking cells from an unused embryo created by in vitro fertilization, one which will not be used and will be destroyed anyway, and creating a good new eye for me.  How is this in any way the same?  No, an embryo is not a fully formed or distinct human.  Hell, it's not even an independent life form!  Why is this so hard to understand?!

As a closing non-sequitur, I find it interesting that being pro-death penalty tends to accompany being pro-life.  I sarcastically surmise that activist pro-lifers really just want to keep everyone alive until birth so they can kill them later.

How important is an Embryo?

So, my topic for this research paper will be that of stem cell research, which will of course include the gargantuan controversy surrounding the topic. Doing initial readings on it, however, there are many things that confuse me about people being anti-stem cell research, and I do understand parts of the argument against embryonic stem cell research, but there are things that just boggle my mind, namely this issue:

It's just an embryo!

And embryo is not equivalent to a human life! It would be very easy to turn this into an abortion argument, but an embryo is even less of a human life than a fetus! And people don't even want to use the embryos created in in vitro fertilization for research?! Most of them are going to be destroyed anyway, why not use them to try and help people?!

One problem with the argument against embryonic stem cell research is the question of where do you draw the line of what is and is not human? I hate slippery slopes as much as the next guy, and they are indeed logical fallacies, but it is worth thinking about that embryos are not humans, they simply have the potential to turn into them. So you know what else has this potential? Sperm and eggs! By this mode of thinking, masturbation is essentially genocide, killing thousands of potential human lives, and even sex for procreation isn't 100% efficient! Many many sperm die in the process, what about those potential humans?! No one is crying for them!

I think the unfortunate fact is that the only reason not to perform embryonic stem cell research is religious in nature, and Christianity has stood up vocally against every major scientific development in recent memory. Those who would disagree with me on this would do well to remember that Christians stood up against astronomy, which is a pretty basic science. They were also against organ donation when it first started, something my Christian friends find odd only because they were raised in a society in which organ donation is not only considered okay, but encouraged.

These same people are often strongly against human cloning, and generally these views are supported by gross misinformation. A friend of mine had the detrimentally misguided idea that the way human cloning would be used, in a scenario in which someone had an organ problem and needed a new one, would be to clone an entire human, take the organ, and then kill the clone. There's no way around it; such an idea is just stupid.

I guess what I am trying to say with this long and disconnected stream of consciousness is that defining what is and is not human life is tricky, and also that religion should never stand in the way of medical developments that save lives.

It's just unfortunate that it so consistently has.

Improv Mafia

I attend a campus event every week called Improv Mafia, which is an improvisational comedy group. Think "Whose Line Is It Anyway," but far funnier. They have a variety of games that they play involving suggestions from the audience, and each member goes by a nickname, like Nick "Klahsio" Klahs, or Mike "Commodore" Norris, or Jared "The Wolf Man" Mason.

The general format is alot of fun. It starts at 8:00pm every Tuesday in the CVA. The Mafia plays short comedy games for half an hour, followed by a half-hour longform that often forms some sort of story or is linked in some way. The short games consist of things like "Shoulda Said," where two improvisers act a scene while two others watch on the sidelines. If the watchers don't like what the actors said, they say "shoulda said," and the actor has to make up a different line in place of what they just said.

The night is always opened with three short games designed to get the audience energized and involved. The two that remain constant in those opening games are "I like my men/women like I like my ," and "Sex is like ."

The longform varies in structure from week to week, and sometimes they have a special theme for it, like last month wherein they involved other performance groups on campus, or last week, in which the longform was a TV sitcom. Audience members were encouraged to bring props and costume pieces to use for the duration of the sitcom. The audience suggested the title, which was determined to be "Halloween Costume Store," and a moral for the episode, which centered around friendship.

Improv Mafia meets every Tuesday at 8:00pm in CVA 145, and it's free, and it's hilarious, so you owe it to yourself to go!

Regina Spektor

So, a friend of mine burned me a data disk of Regina Spektor's entire discography, and all I have to say is wow.  Just wow.  I mean, I knew she was incredible before, because "On the Radio" and "Samson" are awesome and very moving, but I had no idea of the extent of her awesomeness until this morning.  I say "this morning" because I have not slept since Monday, but who needs sleep when you have Regina Spektor?!

Honestly, I can't get over it.  If you haven't listened yet to Regina Spektor, stop reading, go do it, and get back to me.  She is a great musician, in terms of her skill on the piano, but she is not only that, but also is an amazing lyricist!  And when I say amazing, I really do mean it.  Her style varies alot, but almost always features piano, sometimes played in a very poppy "Not the Same" (by Ben Folds) kind of style, but other times it slows down alot, and then we get some beautiful tunes like the aforementioned Samson.  

Spektor tells amazing stories with her music, seriously.  Her lyrics can be wonderfully moving, and she is a great enough musician that it all comes together in a wonderful final product.

This is not the most eloquent I have been about music on here, but like I said, I haven't slept since Monday, so give me a break, please.  So, go check out Regina Spektor.  Later, internet!

"If I Had a Million Dollars" (okay, not quite)

So, this assignment asks what I would do if I had all the money required to pay tuition at ISU, and was required to go out in the world and spend it.  Before I say what I would do with it, I would have to figure out the amount of money I was being given.  The Illinois State Accounts website sets $316.40 as the per credit hour rate of tuition.  We shall assume that I would have taken fifteen credit hours per semester for a total of eight semesters.  This adds up to a grand total of $37,968.  This is not including room and board.

That's alot of money.

As has been demonstrated by the content of my free blogs earlier, my interests, and my field of study (speaking of which, I got accepted into the Arts Technology Music program!).  Therefore, if I got this kind of money, I would spend it on my music production equipment.  This includes midi keyboards (probably more than one), a new computer, Mac Pro of course, and the full versions of all the programs I have ever wanted.  This means Logic, Reason, Cubase, Sibelius, Sonar, and maybe a drum program for good measure.  I would leave enough money to support myself for a while, during which time I would write and produce music and attempt to get picked up by a record label as either an artist or a producer.

The irony, however, is that had I never gone to college, I would never have discovered my interest in writing music, or at least not until much later.  The first music program I used was one called GarageBand, one that comes with every Macintosh.  It is a basic program, not really meant for serious music production, but it is what got me interested.  The whole reason I had the Mac in the first place was because I started college as an art major.  I got it as a graduation present, and my parents talked to people at the university first to see what they should get me. 

I started writing music on GarageBand, and as I got better, I realized its limitations.  I got Logic Pro as a result of this, which is a much more powerful program.  I finally realized that I loved writing music far FAR more than making visual art.  However, were I not an art major, I never would have become a music major.

I guess what I am saying is that I know at this point what I want to do, but if I had not gone to college, I have no idea what I would have been doing at this point.  So in light of this, the question is not one I can really answer.  Our experiences make us what we are, and I cannot imagine what my life would be like if the last two years had been that different.

As an addendum, though, I would not give up my college experience for the world, and not just for the academic and artistic benefits I have received.  You see, college is where I met my boyfriend, someone I am quite confident I can spend the rest of my life with; someone I could not live without at this point.  If I changed my history, no matter how successful I may have become, I would be sacrificing the love of my life, and that is something I could never do.

Incoming Freshmen

Dear incoming freshman,

I have been given the honorable duty of giving you advice on how to handle your first year of college, a responsibility for which I have dubious credibility, being myself not a very good student.  However, I have been told I give very good advice, so here we go!

First thing is roommate selection, as it can make or break the living experience, and therefore the college experience, for many people.  Obviously, there isn't much to say about random roommate selection; it's a craps shoot without a doubt, but there isn't much you can do except hope for the best and change roommates if it doesn't work out.  However, there is much that can be said about rooming with someone you already know.  It can be a very bad idea.  Try to gauge not just how good a friend your potential roommate is, but what traits they have, and I mean ANY traits, that get on your nerves.  You have to decide if you will be able to live with those.  Unfortunately, I have seen multiple times where living together ruined friendships.  Essentially, you just have to be careful, because you don't want living together to interfere with a good friendship, but if you think you will be able to survive living with someone you know, go for it!

Second thing is, be open to socializing with your floor, assuming you live in a dorm (which, if you are a freshman, you pretty much have to).  Living in a dorm is a great opportunity to make friends, and while you will surely meet and socialize with people in classes and in whatever clubs you may choose to attend, you can never have too many!  Leave your door open if you are comfortable with it, walk around and introduce yourself to everyone!  If you live on a floor with a specific designated major, the people on your floor can be a great help with studying or projects, because they have often either already gone through it, or are going through it with you.

Finally, the most important thing is to relax!  College is indisputable a big change from high school, and for legitimate and important reasons, it can be very intimidating.  You need not be afraid of it, though, if only because you made it this far, and this proves you are ready for it.  It can be hard at first to live away from your parents, as it creates alot of personal responsibility and freedom.  But, to put it in perhaps less appropriate terms, you survived all the bullshit of high school.  You survived the teachers, the homework, the tests, and the drama.  You passed the tests and you got accepted!  You have proven to this college that you are ready to experience it, so don't be afraid of it!  Embrace it and have fun; take it as a fun new experience, and you will do great!

Cowboy Bebop

Talking about a favorite TV show is difficult, considering how little TV I watch nowadays.  There aren't really any story based shows that I am keeping up with right now.  As an alternative, I will advertise to you one of my old favorites: an anime called Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy Bebop is the story of a group of bounty hunters (also known as cowboys) in the future who travel the galaxy in their ship called the Bebop in search of bounties.  The four main characters are Spike, the thin, green-haired, sarcastic protagonist, Jet, a large bald man with facial hair and a metal arm, Faye, who can be summed up as the hot chick (she has boobs, it's important, trust me), and Crazy Edward, the random comic relief hacker, who is female, but whose gender is kept ambiguous as a running joke.

A lot of the appeal of the show, for me at least, lies in the soundtrack.  It is full of catchy jazz numbers primarily, but covers a gargantuan range of music when taken in its entirety.  The music is used to great effect to enhance the storytelling in the show, as well as in the incredible Cowboy Bebop Movie.

It's a really fun one to get into, especially if you have interest in anime. The animation is good, the stories are awesome, the soundtrack is incredible, and all of the characters are quirky and fun.  Plus there are plenty of episodes that have little to nothing to do with the actual underlying story, so it is easy to jump in and out of watching as you please.  I highly recommend Cowboy Bebop!

That's all I have to say for now.  Later, internet!

Ad of loathing!

So, for this blog (which is also late *shame shame*), I must analyze an advertisement.  I have chosen to analyze the same ad that I am writing a paper about for this unit: The Yes on Proposition 8 ad, which incidentally, fills me with disgust and anger.  So this is going to be a hard essay/blog to write.

I should probably say whether I think the ad was effective.  To be honest, I don't know how it could have been, being as filled with double think and hypocrisy as it is, but Proposition 8 passed, to my dismay, so obviously those crazy Mormons throwing their life savings at it did something right.

The forum is California television, and youtube to an extent, but since only California residents could vote on it, it only really applies to California television.

My problem with the ad, beyond the fact that I disagree vehemently with everyone in it, is that it is filled with hypocrisy.  Wanting to "protect the institution of marriage" merits some hate of gays, or at least signifies alot of heterosexism, in that you are "protecting" it from gays.  So when the first man in the commercial says this isn't about hating gays or the "lifestyle," he is being ignorant of what his actions show.

All of the ad is grossly biased towards the conservative right, which makes me wonder how the hell it worked in what is considered one of the more progressive states in the country.  When the blond kid, who ironically seems pretty gay to me, says things like "people on both sides agree that Jesus set the ultimate example for love," he is not taking other viewpoints into account.  No, we don't all agree on that.  Those kind of assumptions are understandable, from a conservative right viewpoint, but they are simply wrong.

More to come on this later, because I'm too angry to write more about it right now. Later, internet!

Free Blog of Lateness!

So, this blog is late.  Very late.  And rather than talk about some subject I like and pretend that everything is fine, I thought I would talk about exactly why this blog is late.

The short answer is that I am motivated.  Whether that is a function of my Attention Deficit Disorder or something completely unrelated, I don't know, but I have always struggled against debilitating motivation issues.  I failed an algebra course in high school because of it.  It wasn't that I didn't understand the material, because I did, completely.  What happened was that I didn't do the homework.

You would think that I would learn not to do that, but it came back freshman year of college. I failed an English class, because I got behind on homework, and once I get behind on something, it feels nearly impossible to catch back up.  The work piles up faster than I can get it done, and I tend to just give up.  I stopped going to class and got a failing grade because of it.  That is, in fact, why I am in this class now.

I guess I'm saying all this to say that I'm sorry.  I know I am bad about this and I am going to try harder, but it is just so difficult for me, and I don't know why sometimes.

The problem is that I just don't care about schoolwork.  I generally care just enough not to fail, nowhere near enough to excel.  There's no way for me to force myself to care about something that I don't find personally important.  Music is important to me, so I do well in classes related to it.  English, I am good at, but it just doesn't matter to me.  Neither does math nor science, and not even art anymore.

Anyway, there it is.  My motivation issues laid out for the internet to see.  Sorry about the lateness.

Free blog!

So, I find myself liking Britney Spears' new music (Womanizer, Circus, etc) in spite of myself. At first I was upset with myself about this, but they are honestly not bad songs. She may not be a good musician/singer or anything, but everyone knows she sells records and therefore she gets some great producers working on her music. It's intended to be catchy dance music and it is well written to that effect. Also, Guy Sigsworth is one of the producers/writers on that album, and he's one of my favorites if only for his work with Imogen Heap when they were in the band Frou Frou together. Some amazing music came out of that duo.

Actually, I don't like his work on Spears' very much. I was wondering why this was at first, because I normally love his work, and I decided that it must be because Spears does not have a voice that is suited to ballads or slower music in the slightest. She has a voice that is suited to dance music, but she is not a good singer, so slow songs that require alot of emotion or vocal performance are not good songs for her.

While I'm thinking of it, though, I want to talk about Frou Frou. This is a band consisting of Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth, and it is quite amazing. They only made one album and they don't plan to make another, but their album is so good I'm fine with it. It's an excellent techno-pop kind of album. Very ethereal sound, some great vocals from Imogen Heap.

Speaking of which, Heap's new album is supposed to be out soon, and I can't wait! She really is my musical idol, and I have heard samples from the new album on her vlog on youtube. It's going to be quite an amazing album, but unfortunately it's not scheduled for release until March. This wouldn't be a bad thing at all, except that Heap was going to try to make it available in early January, and I really want to hear it!

It is really interesting watching vlogs about her process of writing, though. Makes me think about my own process, really. It also makes me want my own studio, but that's a goal that is not forseeable in the near future. Someday when I am a worl-famous musician (which is totally going to happen), I will be able to afford a top of the line studio in my own house. That day is far away, sadly.

But that's all I really have to talk about, so see you later, internet!

Inauguration

So, our new president was inaugurated yesterday, and I could not be happier! Well, I suppose I could be happier, I mean, if Imogen Heap's new album was out I would be happier but still! I am pretty happy (why isn't it out yet!?). Admittedly, though, when I first started watching, I was unimpressed.

I woke up late yesterday, not having to wake up early due to having only one class at 1:00 in the afternoon. I turned on CNN at about 11:05 or so. One of the first things I saw was Rick Warren, and the sight of him fills me with disgust.

For those not familiar with the controversy, Rick Warren was the person chosen to do the invocation at Obama's inauguration. I, and most of the gay community, had quite a problem with this, as Rick Warren is someone who has equated homosexuality with pedophilia and incest, and I think possibly even rape, though I'm not sure. This is not acceptable. I understand that Obama is trying to reach across the aisle, but I am sure that he could have chosen someone who was loved by the conservative right, and still respected by the other side. Rick Warren's involvement alienates a large portion of Obama's support base. Symbolic decisions are important in active civil rights struggles, and while I still feel he cares about gay rights, Obama is not reflecting this with this decision.

Besides that, prayers at public, non-religious ceremonies weird me out. I know that this is a predominantly Christian nation, but we are not a theocracy, and the inauguration is a celebration of the will of all American citizens, NOT just the Christians. Having something at a public ceremony that is completely not affiliated with a church or any religious organization isn't really fair to those among us who do not pray to that specific deity.

But Rick Warren did about as well as I expected him to; I wasn't really listening to him anyway. I went to lunch after that and got my food just in time to see the majority of Obama's inauguration address, and I must say, it was incredible.

His speech seriously gave me chills at multiple points. I can't say that normally happens, and true, it was probably a function of the temperature of the dining center, but I choose to attribute the chills to the speech, because Obama is just that awesome. I am really happy to have a president who can actually speak publicly, because I feel it is one of the most important traits of a good president. How much influence a president actually has over the system at large can be argued, but one thing that they do have pretty much complete control over is how the rest of the world views us.

Presidents represent us to the rest of the world, and for the last eight years, we have been represented by an old-looking hyper-conservative southern white guy, who is completely and utterly incompetent as a public speaker. My loathing for Bush's speaking ability knows no bounds. Now, however, we have a tall, young, black man with a Muslim sounding name as our commander-in-chief. That is something the rest of the world respects far more. This is aided by the fact that he is a brilliant speaker. Bush had bad ideas, but even his couple good ideas, he could not sell well because he was a complete failure as a public speaker. Obama has good ideas, and he knows how to communicate them. I have the utmost respect for Obama, and while I am sure he won't be able to live up to all the expectations set for him, I think he will do a very good job.

I didn't really watch more of the inauguration after that, but I did hear Aretha Franklin sing. You go girl!

First Entry: Intro/new album

Greetings, internet!  My name is AJ, and this blog is for my English class.  I plan to use it to further my education as a writer (though that is not my focus or anything), and also to share my musical tastes with you all.  I feel that music is a good subject on which to spend my writing talents, as it is my passion in life, and hopefully, shall soon be my major.  So, without further ado, I would like to bring to the attention of my adoring fans a few albums that you all need to hear.

At present, I am listening to an album by BT, someone whom I consider to be possibly the greatest techno/electronica artist the musical world has yet seen.  The album is called This Binary Universe, and it is a brilliant foray into the world of ambient electronica.  In all seriousness, if you have any interest in electronic music at all, you owe it to yourself to purchase this triumph of an album as soon as you possibly can.  Each track takes you on a journey all on its own.  BT proves himself master of the stutter edit, provided his fans were not already aware of this from his earlier albums.  Speaking of which, go buy Emotional Technology as well.  Very different style, but similarly awesome.

That's all for this first in what I hope is a series of similarly enthusiastic journal entries.  I hope you enjoyed reading about this very small facet of my musical tastes.  Until next time, internet!