The Most Often Overlooked Genre of Music

Hey audience, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy doing other things, such as DEALING WITH THE RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF COURSEWORK ASSIGNED TO JUNIORS. In any case, I have returned, having been away from my blog for so long. Why have I returned, you ask? I, my friend (as this is not popular enough yet that I will expect anyone EXCEPT my friends to be reading it), was inspired to use an hour or so of my life to record my thoughts in a public domain after listening to an album on my iPod in the dark with my eyes closed. I do this somewhat often, for it helps me relax.

QUICK, WHAT SORT OF MUSIC DOES SOMEONE USE TO RELAX?

Classical? Remember, I'm sixteen years old.
Pop? Nope
R&B? Nope
Some soft rock or country? Yep

...Just kidding, country sucks

Whatever sort of music you immediately imagined me listening to, I am pretty damn sure that it wasn't metal (Unless you know me personally). Hell, if you're over 40, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't even know what I'm talking about, or if you THINK that you know what I'm talking about but are really hopelessly ignorant. The truth is, few people consider metal a viable genre of music. Next time the opportunity arises, ask someone what type of music they listen to. Many people, when asked this question, will respond with something along these lines:

"I listen to everything"

For example, when I went to San Diego a few months ago, I was asked by a member of the family we were staying with what sort of music I liked. She wanted to put on some music, and since I was the guest, she was going to let me choose from her selection of "pretty much everything". When I responded that I liked metal, I expected her to walk over to her speaker and put on some music of my preferred genre. Instead, she responded with an "oh..." and I realized what had happened.
In a similar incident, when I was staying in Hawaii with my family, I requested those with which we were rooming if I could put some of my music music on their awesome outdoor sound system. My mom discouraged me, but our host was intruiged. She asked what kind of music I listen to, and I responded, and when she didn't know what I was talking about, I clarified. By "a much harder, more aggressive version of rock" she thought I meant AC DC.

My own family, as they live with me, is more savvy about this than most people. My brother, for instance, is one of those people who can HONESTLY say that he listens to every genre of music, from country to classical to metal to pop to rap, etc. My father, however, and to a degree, my brother, no matter how many times I tell them, are unable to accept one simple fact.

Metal helps me relax

I know, right? Metal is this AGGRESSIVE, MEAN, LOUD form of music. How could that possibly make someone relax? The answer is simple: I find the music beautiful. And if you would just go ahead and listen to it, I wouldn't be surprised if you did too. Metal takes an enormous amount of skill to play, probably more than any genre of music with the possible exception of classical. Don't get me wrong, some of it is bad, but a hell of a lot of it is good.

I urge you, therefore, to experience this genre of music for yourself and tell me what you think.

Post I have been meaning to write 1.

I haven't updated this blog in a long time, due to numerous time consuming activities I have been occupied with. Well, two time consuming activities: school and football. I have no qualms with football (otherwise I wouldn't be playing it), but I have major beef with school.

When are we going to have to analyze literature in our adulthood?

The truth is, most schools demand that students take classes that are either entirely focused on or are in large part dedicated to the analysis of literature. I personally have nothing against the analysis of literature, in fact I think it a reasonably interesting pastime. The truth remains, however, that only a literary critic need have the skills they teach in these classes, and, last time I checked, literary critics did not make up more than 1% of the population. That such classes are compulsory disturbs me. In fact, I can't even understand the American preoccupation with reading. Every time I set foot in an elementary school classroom (which is not often), I am bombarded by propaganda about reading. Really, what is so fantastic about reading? Hell, reading is fun, but video games are fun too. The truth is, generations past looked upon reading as idle pleasure. Once again, I'm not dissing reading. I love reading. What I am dissing is society's groundless obsession with reading, and subsequently the imposing of reading on helpless generations that may or may not share my enjoyment of the activity.

Evolution

Lets take a few steps back here. Does anyone remember reading my first post? Is anyone even reading this entry, let alone this blog? In case you don't remember, it was about my views on religion. Let me restate the post in a few words: I think that religion is a blight upon the earth, but do not blame those who have fallen prey to it. In any case, two days ago in biology, I came to learn that the person sitting next to me did not believe in evolution and instead believed that earth was created by God. I stared dumbly at him for a few seconds and replied with a rather vacant "what?". When I realized that this person was not in fact joking and earnestly believed in creationism, my first impulse was not to hold him in low esteem as I always feared I would, but to be curious. I asked him what he thought of dinosaurs and either he evaded the question or I was too confused to understand his response. My second impulse, to my confusion, was not to argue with him over the lack of scientific evidence supporting creationism, or for that matter Christianity in general. Instead, I suddenly felt immense pity, not because I thought that he was wasting his life but because he was being taught that something he didnt believe in was a fact. In the past I had always been among the most ardent supporters of evolution's involvement in education, and I still am, but now I see that even something that seemed as clear cut and obvious as that has an ugly side. Regardless of whether they are right or wrong, having what must seem like someone's false opinion shoved down one's throat by an authority figure must be a traumatic experience. In spite of this ethical dilemma, however, I still hold fast to the principles of science and continue to believe that evolution should be taught in schools. I believe that people must know the truth, but now I see that there are sometimes consequences, for a scientific theory is not clear-cut to one who does not trust scientific principles. It seems as if everything in this world has a dark side, but I am not willing to give up on the world yet.

Quantum Theory

I hope that all of my readers are well acquainted with quantum theory. If you are not, then, well, lets just say I warned you. On my way to football practice today, with my ipod blasting viking metal into my ears, my mom interrupted my treasured music to tell me something. Now I don't remember what that something was, but I do remember that it made me think about quantum theory's application to human consciousness and behavior. I realized that I might do ANYTHING, for although the chances of me spontaneously opening the car door and and jumping out were woefully small, quantum theory dictates that the complex machine that is my brain could have fired synapses justifying such behavior. I realized that everything I was could have, and did (parallel universes, in case you didn't catch that) occur differently. While this reinforced my insignificant status on Earth, it gave me a more positive outlook on life. Humans can and have accomplished anything and everything. Just not in our parallel universe.

Blogging

In case you were too lazy to read the first post, blogging is kind of a new thing for me. That is to say, I have never started a blog before, researched blogs, or even read any blogs consistently. Therefore, I was completely unprepared for the intellectual demands such a responsibility. I have found myself sitting in the passenger seat of the car (yes I am not old enough to drive in case you were also too lazy to read my profile) wondering what I could write about. As I wrote the above passage, I realized exactly what I should write this entry about. However, I will not change the title to reflect what the latter half of the blog will inevitably contain.

During one of my more recent football practices, I, in an exhaustion-induced delirium, began pondering what is probably one of the most troublesome aspects of human nature. It all started when I fully comprehended that the better my team did, the worse the players on the other team did by comparison. Naturally, no one likes to lose, especially if losing entails, as it did during this practice, bear crawls (if you don't know what these are, I will just say that I tore off several square inches of my palms doing them once: they are hell). I therefore began to sympathize with the other team during this practice game and felt an obligation to lose. I naturally did not follow this obligation and continued competing to my fullest extent. I thought to myself, however, that sports are the manifestation of a dark side of human nature. No matter how well we do, what we really care about is doing better than our fellow man. This trait has huge evolutionary advantages (it promotes competition, which is a vital aspect of natural selection), but when analyzed morally, it can almost be classified as sadistic. So now I pose the question: are humans inherently sadistic? Did the Cro-Magnon man laugh at the pain of his peers? I personally am not qualified to answer this question. In fact, I do not believe that anyone can accurately answer that question, as no one currently alive was there. I personally am confident that modern society has tamed our innate callousness. As for the degree of actual sadism that took place, I have no idea.

By the way, my friend started a blog, and he's posted a link to my blog on his, so I figure that I might as well reciprocate.

fattybear122.blogspot.com

Tic Tacs

A few weeks back, I was walking through Blockbuster with my friends at about 9:00 PM. We were the only people in the store besides two clerks behind the counter. I then did something incredibly stupid. I picked up a $0.75 package of orange flavored tic tacs and began emptying them into my pocket. A clerk walked up to me with an expression of mixed exasperation and disgust and told me to get out of the store. I was mortified, for he threatened to call the police and have them arrest me. At the same time, however, I realized that the police would probably not care. I offered to pay for the tic tacs, but he refused to accept the money. In his righteous wrath, he sent me out of the store and did not let my friends rent the movie. This episode ruined my night with my friends and haunted me for weeks. Even describing it now is painful. About a week ago, though, I came to realize that the clerk, who seemed to have such a powerful loyalty to his business, had actually hurt blockbuster much more that I had. Not only did he refuse to accept my offer to pay, he did not let my friends rent a movie. In total, I have accosted Blockbuster $1.50 (Yes, I had stolen orange flavored tic tacs once before). The financial damage that the clerk inflicted was roughly four times what I did. I am never going to shoplift again; there are much more intelligent ways in which I can make trouble. However, through this incident, I learned another thing: that righteousness clouds one's judgment and only causes conflict to proliferate.

First post

Tonight I have to finish two books, Frankenstein and In Cold Blood, the latter of which was very good and the previous of which I have not finished yet. In order to keep me awake long enough to finish Frankenstein, I downed two red bulls. This is keeping me plenty awake as of yet, but it seems to have another side effect. Perhaps it was not the red bull, but instead the haunting morbidity of In Cold Blood. In any case, I began to contemplate my own mortality. I thought to myself, "I wonder what my funeral will be like", and then with horror imagined a priest or similar religious figure presiding over the ceremony. I became overwhelmed with the urge of recording somewhere that I would want an athiestic funeral with no religious influence of the sort (in case you hadn't picked up on this already, I am an atheist who is opposed to religion). Realizing that writing this down just on a scrap of paper or in a word document on my computer had disadvantages (e.g. misplacement, computer replacement, the fact that its just plain weird), I decided to start a blog, an idea that I had been toying with ever since my mom did so a few years ago and that had been reawakened by a friend of mine (who is religious, ironically, though I respect him immensely). I thought to myself then, "what shall I write besides this morbid declaration?" I decided that I might as well record my thoughts towards religion. Religion, in case you had not already determined, is a subject of great interest to me. I personally hold religion in low esteem, yet many of the people whom I respect most are religious. Therefore, I would like to say that I view religion much in the way that I view smoking. I realize that this viewpoint may offend many people, and would like to point out that it is but an analogy. I cannot fathom why anyone would embrace either of the two. I feel that both shave off the time from one's life, smoking literally, and religion metaphorically, for those long hours spent in prayer I can only view (and yes, I have tried to view it otherwise) as wasted time. Yet, as I have grown to respect some people who smoke, I have also grown to accept people with religion. I often feel the need to point out that lack of scientific evidence proves that God or other deities and such are no more likely to exist than an invisible rhinocerous that follows me around and protects me. As such, I can paradoxically empathize with Evangelical Christians who seek to save others from hell as I seek to save others from wasting their lives. I also realized as I formulated this declaration that I was in a way confessing. I imagined myself confessing in an altar that I sometimes lose respect, to my shame, for people who are devout. Everyone has a need to confess, and perhaps religion is so universally appealing because it gives people such an outlet. Seeing as I have no wish to delude myself, I do not intend to confess to some priest but to whoever reads this blog. This is not to say that this is the sole purpose of this blog. Also motivating my desire to blog was a nagging thought which was also awakened by my confrontation of mortality. The thought was along the lines of this "Everyone ought to have their story recorded, because every life is interesting." As such, I am in effect, recording my life. I do not intend to bore you with the details of my relative youth (I am but fifteen years of age), I merely intend to speak of things I feel are important.