Manhood?

Howdy.

The hiatus has mostly been due to laziness, but for the past week I've actually had a legit excuse due to my computer getting fucked over by the elements. See, I've been at a summer music program hosted by Berklee School of Music. The first night I got here, I put all my shit in my room, set up my laptop on the generic desk given to each student here, then left to go meet people and the like. The desk I've got here happens to be situated under a window, which I left open, since it has a tendency to get hot as balls in a room with four windows and no air conditioning. That night, it rained. On my computer, iPod, and PSP. The iPod and PSP were totally fine, but my computer was fried. Fortunately, Apple makes awesome shit, so a week later, once everything dried out, everything was fine, hence the whole "holy shit there's a blog post" thing.

Anyway, last night me and my roommate somehow got on the topic of manhood. As in the age-old question of "at what point does a boy become a man?" Now me, in all my libertarian glory, laid out my usual response of "when he is really and truly independent; that is, he's paying his own bills, buying his own food, and generally supporting himself." My roommate, offended, said "so you're saying I'm not a man?", to which I responded, "yeah, but neither am I."

Now, my roommate is a pretty smart dude who also happens to be Canadian, which may have contributed to his rebuttal, in which he asked me if I thought that a person supported by his government was not a man. This actually got to me. Having had a little time to think about it, I came to the conclusion that no, in fact, someone supported by his government is not, in my eyes, a full-fledged man. That is not to say that one dependent on his government is a mere boy, but I still think that one who is dependent on his government lacks that essential element on independence.

But what about married men? Old motherfuckers? Does someone have to be completely independent to be a "man"? Must a man be an island?

I don't think so. I think my revised definition of a man depends more on the idea that a man should have the means and ability to be totally independent, but does not necessarily have to be supporting himself. A man living with a partner who helps keep up the household is still a man, so long as he is not totally dependent on that partner for his well being.

Also, like most philosophical arguments, the whole "when does a boy become a man" argument is actually pretty stupid and in reality, I think it's better just to get on with your shit and stop worrying about everything.

Which, in itself, is a philosophy. Fuck.

Peace out bitches.

Motivation?

As of yesterday, I have this massive urge to become better.  I have absolutely no idea why.  I just feel like I need to know more, to listen to more music, to dress better, to be in better shape, to write more prolifically, play bass more effectively, and to have absolute confidence that I am better than the person next to me.

It's not as though I need to be the best at anything, and I still don't feel like I should subscribe to someone else's standard for how good I should be.  Grades, expectations, and promotions aren't what I'm looking for, it's a sense of inner betterment which is what I feel as though I should look for.  It seems like so much of society is based on impressing somebody else; get good grades in high school so you can get into a good college, build other peoples expectations so they will think better of you, work hard so you can impress your boss to get that promotion.

The more I think about it, the less respect I have for those who devote their lives to this kind of "make them happy" mentality.  They all seem to think that sucking up to the right person will make them better, but in reality all they accomplish is making the person above them feel a little more self-righteous.  It's ridiculous.  I think we should all live on our own terms, not on the terms that have been given to us.

Gods dammit am I turning into Thoreau?

Peace out bitches.

Piratpartiet!

Good news for those of you who give two shits about copyright law: the Pirate Party has finally managed to score a seat in the European Union. The Pirate Party, an independent group in Sweden, is a 3rd-Party in favor of government transparency and major copyright reform to meet the changing nature of the way information is transfered in the digital age.  In short, they're pretty cool.

Now, my personal support still goes to the Libertarian Party, but as someone who'd like to see some change in the copyright system, it does make me feel a little bit warm/fuzzy to know that the idea of copyright reform is on other peoples minds right now.

You'd think that as someone who wants to go into the music industry, I'd be against shit like this.  You'd be wrong.  While I'm sure that there are many people who just want to get some free music, I don't feel as though that's where the heart of the party is.  Copyright laws right now are bloated, prevent innovation, and serve more to protect the interests of large companies than to protect the interests of artists and musicians.  Right now, copyright lasts for as long as the creator is alive plus 70 years.  That's absolutely ridiculous.  This is legislation made for and by big companies.  This is most definitely NOT in the best interest of the individual.

My gods I'm a blogger who's outraged about copyright law.  How much more stereotypical can I get?

Peace out bitches.

I'm a Lazy Bastard.

I've had pretty much unrestricted access to a computer for the past three days and I still have yet to write a blog post.  I'm a horrible person.

Anyway, the past three days have basically been spent looking at music and t-shirts.  Also trying to find places around here that don't totally suck to hang out in.  Also seeing the new Star Trek movie (finally.)  I've always been a big Star Wars geek, ever since my parents dragged me kicking and screaming to see the re-mastered versions in the '90s.  I never really got into Star Trek though, but that new movie was FUCKING AWESOME.  Holy shit.  Star Trek is cool now and I want them to make a sequel SO HARD!!!!

In other news, I'm really fucking psyched for WWDC tomorrow.  I've had my eye on an iPhone for a while, but I've been holding off until they come out with the next generation and it's happening tomorrow.  I hope they fix all the things everyone complains about all the time.  I'm not even that huge of an electronics geek.  I am a gigantic Apple whore though; I love everything they do and Steve Jobs is a little bit like a god to me.  Yes, I know he's an asshole.  No, I don't care.

Also, people always complement me on my t-shirts, so if you want them, go here.

Peace out bitches.

What the fuck, California?

Sorry for the lack of posting for the past few days.  I've been busy; Thursday was a chorus concert, Friday was my first gig with the new country/southern rock, Saturday I was just chilling out, and Sunday I was at the local theme/water park.  Fun shit.

Anyway, my belated blog post is pretty behind the times, but there's some shit that I feel needs to be said.  I'm guessing that anyone who knows anything already knows what I'm pissed about, but for those of you not in the know, this should fill you in.  Now, I'm sure you've all heard the pro-gay schtick about how it's all about equal rights and blah, blah, blah.  We all know that it's an issue of human rights.  Honestly, the decision doesn't surprise me; the Supreme Court did their job here: constitutionally, the amendment was legitimate.  The job of the courts is to analyze the constitutionality of laws, not the morality of them.  Would I have liked it if they had overturned it?  Yes, very much so.  However, I realize that they were simply doing their job here.

One argument that sticks out for me is the idea of "civil unions" as opposed to marriage as a way to appease both sides.  This actually seems like a fairly reasonable solution to me, but I've always been bothered by the idea that homosexuals would have to get "civil unioned" while straight people could still get married.  If it were up to me, I'd say that we separate the process into two parts: religious and legal.  Let anybody "civil union" whoever the hell they want to get the legal benefits of marriage, and let the churches sort out who the hell they want to marry for the religious ceremony.

All of this in mind, I still don't see why people are opposed to it; nobody's forcing you to marry a dude.  It's like I've always said: if you're offended, go fuck yourself.

Peace out bitches.

(Editor's note: I found an interesting article on the subject here.)

Pseudo-Intellectuals...

... like to use big words like "pseudo-intellectual" to make themselves sound smarter than you.  I'm onto you, motherfuckers!

Anyway, I came to a couple important conclusions today.  The first of these is that "no one" pisses me off.  It sounds like it should be one word, like "someone" or "anyone," but no, it's got to be two separate fucking words.  The only thing I hate more than that word-pairing is people who make it into one goddamn word.  The word "noone" is OBVIOUSLY spelled wrong.  Even if you don't have the handy dandy dotted red line underneath it to tell you that you suck at the english language, you really should be able to tell if the word is spelled wrong or not.  It just looks weird.

The other conclusion I reached today is that I hate "artistes".  As a musician at an arts school, I run into a lot of these.  These are people that honestly think that their random waving of arms, random notes blown into a horn, or shitty one-man plays don't need to look good, sound good, or even make sense because they are an artiste and there artistic expression of their inner soul is all the beauty they will ever need.  I'm all for pushing the envelope of what's tasteful, hell, I listen to metal on a semi-regular basis, but there comes a point where things just straight up sound like shit.  People like this will always say "oh you just don't understand my art," to which I reply "no, I don't, because there really isn't anything to understand: you string random notes and words together and attribute meaning to them after the fact.  I know how you work because I am smarter than you, and I can see through your bullshit."

I'm only cocky because I can be.

Peace out bitches.

I'm Back

Title says it all.  Buncha shit's happened since my random hiatus.  I'm in a country/southern rock cover band, I'm vegan, and I've discovered that everything you do sounds SO MUCH MORE BADASS when you're listening to Parliament.  It's been quite the month, to say the least, and that's not even including the personal drama that I refuse to blog about because frankly, I know you straight up don't want to hear about it.

I guess it is a little ironic that I refuse to blog about my personal life on a blog called "The Place Where I Complain About My Life and Stuff," but I'd be lying if I said I never contradicted myself.  My main issue is that while I have no problem spouting my opinions on any number of issues, I don't feel the need to turn this into yet another "teen blog."  Anyone who'd read this either a) is in high school, and thus has their own shitty teenage drama to deal with or b) already graduated high school, and thus has dealt with their fair share of shitty teenage drama in their lifetime.  Middle schoolers aren't allowed to read my blog.  Go away.  Now.

Anyway, you guys can take this as some kind of attempt to return to regular writings.  Believe it or not, writing is something I enjoy, and something I've been thinking about as an alternative to the whole "musician" thing.  I'm terrible at planing for the future; my previous career plans have included paleontologist, genetic engineer, ornithologist, and professional wrestler.  Having realized that I hate doing things that feel like work, I've ruled out all of those previous career choices, since the first three require too much education and the last one's just fucking dumb.  Now I've managed to narrow down my options to music, writing, and journalism.  I've got a bad habit of picking careers in dying industries.

With that in mind, I'm going to go do something else now.  Expect another post tomorrow.

Peace out bitches.

(Before I forget: You should all listen to the Soulwax Remix of the Muse song Muscle Museum.  It's pretty badass)