A Description

I remember getting my first bass when I was a young lad. It's a really exciting moment to get something new, something foreign to what you know like a new instrument. It was beautiful. Or that's what I believed. Right out of the box it had the smell of polish. It was colored a shade of sky blue, with two knobs on the front, one for volume, the other for tone. The strings ran across the dark colored pickups, with the pickups being characterized by the tiny silver point of metal that absorbs the noise made by the vibrating strongs. The fretboard was a dark cherry color. Every fret was made evident by the metal separators that give them their own sound. The head of the guitar had four knobs, one for each string used for tuning. The bright silver strings had a red coil that ran around the knobs. The top part of the body was longer then the bottom. It stuck out for the sole purpose of holding the strap. Or just to look awesome. The bass lacked imperfection. Everything on it was pristinely made, with no peril of doubt. The strings made a low, soft, and jazzy tone when plucked. The noise was so smooth that I'm almost certain it could make a grown man cry. Don't get me wrong, this bass wasn't even close to top of the line, but that was no matter. At the age of ten, anything new is something to behold with the highest honor.

Ugh, High School

If I were in charge of my high school the first facet I would change would be the discipline. It wasn't that there was too much, but rather too little. I found them punishing for petty things and letting the bigger things slide(especially for athletes). I just want some balance between the leniency and strictness. I wouldn't mind a little more emphasis on learning, either. I had way too many free days in classes like history and math where I want to learn something that I could genuinely use in real life rather then just be sitting there doing nothing. High school now really feels pointless to me because of the lack of education that I received during my career. Our high school also had a very stifled art department. It'd be awesome to see an art lab be installed in the school somewhere. I'm pretty sure all we have right now is a few kinds of paint, some elements for building a mosaic, and some colored pencils. I'd love to have a transition over to doing ceramics and pottery and other things like that but there is very little to work with. A lacking art department really stifles the creativity of the students and doesn't allow them to think freely like a teenager should be in high school. High school is all about growing up, and it's prevented entirely often in schools. I think overall I'd just like to see more structure, and more people that genuinely care about the education of students rather then just getting a paycheck.

I remember

I remember when I was a kid...I lived on Maxwell Air Force Base. There was a playground literally right behind my house. Most kids dream of that. Every single day, me and my brother and friends would go out there and play on it for hours. Everyone at Maxwell was sort of bound by the same thing. Everyone there was military or had military parents and were raised the same sort of way. I remember being homeschooled there. It's hard being homeschooled and being social. They don't exactly go hand in hand. I was kind of alienated from the whole friends away from the neighborhood thing, except for at church, but that hardly counted. I wish I had more of an opportunity to outsource as a kid, you know? Make new friends(or enemies), build relationships, all of that. New people don't exactly move in constantly at military bases, so we were stuck with the friends we had. I remember military life being simple. The grocery store was only a mile away, and we could literally walk to the hospital. The theatre was just down the road. Military bases were built for convenience. It was the sort of safe comfort that really made the military base what it was. It was the most tightknit community I've ever been part of, and I think that was the beauty of it.

Innonvation

I like innovation. It's amazing to see throughout the years the improvements that we have made on simple concepts. Things like going from cooking over a fire to cooking in an oven. Or from the Pony Express to the e-mail. Even simple things are getting innovated. The Australians made a shower head that fills each drop of water with air, allowing for 30% conservation of water. I find it amazing to how different practices change. 30 years ago we were using lead paint to paint houses. I enjoy the fact that humans are trying to make things better for ourselves. It's our constant effort to become lazy, in a good way. Innovation also shows that humans are willing to take a risk. I mean, that's all that innovation really is. Creativity times risk. Innovation is important to society not only so we can live easier, and use less resources, and improve our lives, but to show that taking a chance can produce good results. I think that's an important part to life. Taking a chance. It's not something we do too often, and many times we miss out on the opportunity to do it.

Fox News

Something on television has done something I can only describe as "breaking my mind". I was flipping through channels, searching for something to watch, when I stumbled upon a Fox News story about Michelle Obama. More precisely, the story was about the shorts that Michelle Obama wore to the Grand Canyon. Let me say that one more time. This is a news story, on actual television, about this woman's SHORTS. They kept posing the question of whether or not they were too short to wear in public. How is that news?! America has a 9 trillion dollars worth of debt and a everchanging healthcare reform going on and they talk about the first ladies fashion choices instead? This is probably why we don't get anything done. If we spent some more time not worrying about things like the soles on Obama's shoes or Joe Biden's wife's pantsuit then maybe we could get proactive for something else? For example, the healthcare bill is an enormous issue. People are getting all worked up about it, but I'm sure you'll find that a majority of people who are getting worked up haven't called their congressman and senators or done much at all besides complaining about it. I guess my main point is that we as a whole tend to focus on the things that don't count for our future and forget about the things that actually matter to us as citizens. If some of that brainpower was put in a different direction, I think that we could really make something of it.

Shaun of the Dead

Simon Pegg is a genius, although I doubt you've heard his name. He is the creator of the British sitcom Spaced and movies such as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Shaun of the Dead is a particular interesting take on the zombie movie genre. It is an amalgam of comedy and the living dead, and not to mention more than a handful of British charm. Shaun is a lowly technology store worker who finds himself caught in the middle of a zombie invasion. The movie really catches your attention because it doesn't follow the average storyline of a film about the undead. Instead of holing himself up inside his house or at a warehouse or a military base, his plan is to go to a pub and have a pint until it all blows over. On top of the unique story, the movie is laced with comedic value portrayed by down-to-earth characters. Ed, Shaun's flatmate, is a shining example of this. He is jobless, lazy, but suprisingly cheerful. He is the kind of person who makes everything a scapegoat for his own faults, but also wants everyone to be happy, which is shown in later scenes of the movie as he is making up stories trying to cheer Shaun up after Shaun's girlfriend, Liz, broke up with him. Shaun of the Dead makes for an interesting movie due to it's charm, and kindhearted nature. It's like a comedy movie caught in the apocalypse. I don't doubt that it is the first movie to actual capture peoples hearts while wildly bludgeoning the living dead all at the same time, which is what makes this movie stand out from any other in the horror and comedy genres.