englishwestern's Xanga

The Surreal Comedy Of The Cold War

Sat, 17 May 2008 21:02:27 GMT

In George Orwell's 1984, Room 101 is a chamber where potential dissidents (it is not necessary that one be a confirmed dissident in Orwell's Oceania) are tortured with their worst fear, whatever that may be. According to Wikipedia, Erich Mielke, director of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, was an admirer of Orwell's work and had the rooms in the Stasi building renumbered so that his office became Room 101.

A Question for all the ladies in the house

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:26:30 GMT

Why is it that more or less every girl I know thinks a British accent is the sexiest thing since the beach boys? I really don't get it.

All done-almost

Fri, 02 May 2008 23:30:06 GMT

I just realized I had three finals in less than 24 hours. Also, what feels like 9 hours of sleep, though I know it was more like twelve, in the past two days. Just have to finish my 25 page paper and I'm done.

Two posts for the price of one!

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:05:51 GMT

I'm recycling a response I gave to AimeeAnne here. The prompt was the question "What are the 5 things most important in a woman to you?" My answer is reproduced below.

1. She should be someone who chases the horizon. Not in the sense of being "a dreamer" or impractical, but someone who's always pushing to become more than they already are. Of a piece with this, she should be resilient, determined, not easily hurt or dissuaded. This pretty much encompasses a lot of what comes next.

2. She should be highly intelligent, instinctively curious, eager to study new ideas and assimilate new information.

3. She should be reasonably athletic. I use the term "athletic" loosely here, mostly to mean someone capable of enjoying physical exertion, in good condition. I'm certainly not much in the hand-eye co-ordination or team sports department, but I engage in fairly high-intensity physical activity on a regular basis (daily, when I can), usually running or martial arts.

4. She should have a good sense of humor. Dry irony is particularly sexy.

5. She should be reasonably attractive. If she fulfills number three, this probably wouldn't be much of a stretch.

The Rice Principle

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:13:50 GMT

Ocelot has encouraged me to update, and since she seems to be tossing out recommendations for entries right and left, I figured now would be a good time to post. Since I am a shallow and self-absorbed man without worthwhile insights of my own, however, I decided to take them from someone else. I got this story from my Judo Sensei, and though Asian Martial-Artsy Wisdom always risks plunging into the Abyss of Cliche, it's still a striking image. In the spirit of shameless plagiarism, then:

“Ssal Shin Jo” translates from Korean as “Rice Principle”.

“Rice Principle” judo was inspired by a story my Father told me once after practice one day, when I was young and felt particularly proud of myself. It was for something I no longer recall, although I remember that I was boasting a bit, and my father said, “Do you know how rice grows?”

“No,” I said, “I don’t. Why?”

“When it’s young and green, it grows like this,” he said, holding one hand in the other, and pushing his fingers slowly upwards, “the head is up and straight.

“But when it gets ripe, and the rice is ready, the head is heavy and bows down.” As he said this, the fingers and hand of the growing rice bent until they were completely bowed forward.

“Remember this, ok?”

And I have.

Appalachian Old-Time

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:59:11 GMT

So, today I went to my friends american folk music class with him, to hear guest speaker Mike Seeger. I hope at least some of you recognize that last name. Yes, that's right, it's Pete Seeger's younger, badder brother (though given that Pete Seeger was born in 1919, Mike is still fairly old). It was fascinating. He talked extensively about the development of what people usually call "old-time" music, somewhat similiar to bluegrass, but with a more back-woods element, associated primarily with the south and with Appalachia. Every so often he'd give a performance to illustrate his talk. The general trend of his talk was that American music developed a very unique sound as a result of the synthesis of African and European-folk influences (the banjo, apparently, was an African instrument originally made with gut strings and a gourd, and was the most popular instrument in the US until the guitar began to supplant it around the turn f the century).

A clip of Mr Seeger (though not of his presentation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4iL3rn9zG8

This has prompted me to think about trying to learn the harmonica.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:22:35 GMT

While discussing economic difficulties and how to pay for college, my father and I had the following exchange:

Me: "Hmm...I could donate a kidney, you know."

Dad: "We're competing with China in that too."

Callous jokes aside, this is a serious problem (one of the many serious problems, in fact, that the chinese government tends to inflict on it's people)

http://organharvestinvestigation.net/media/Olympic%20Pressure%20Brought%20to%20Bear%20on%20Organ%20Thieves.htm

Mid-day serenades

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:05:02 GMT

So, at lunch on sunday, my friends and I were sitting at one end of a long table, when we looked up and saw a girl walking down the table towards. It got our attention because she was on the table, rather than walking alongside it as is customary. When she was about ten feet away from us, she started singing into a pepper shaker "Have I told you lately that I love you?" (By Rod Stewart), while looking directly at me. She then proceeded to kneel directly in front of me (nearly upsetting my breakfast) and continued to sing. Afterwards, there was chuckling and clapping on our part, and she want back to her friends. As she was walking out, she turned around and sang some more in my direction (I don't remember what song it was that time). I told all this to my brother, and he responded "That sounds like something that would happen on Gilmore Girls."

Thank you

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:35:01 GMT

To everyone who wished me happy birthday. In honor of Ocelot's new electric violin, I have attached this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMMZvbvUcAk Listen carefully and you'll here mention made of "the electric violin on desolation row" (around 4:45 minutes into it.)

Finals Are Over

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:15:37 GMT

Let all the earth rejoice.