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AlpiusLeon
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Name: David
Metro:
Gender: Male
Interests: God, Stargate, Star Wars, LOTR, books, the internet....
Expertise: Reading fast, looking like I'm doing school when I'm not, falling down while playing tennis, etc....
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/23/2004
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| Yep, I'm officially retiring from this xanga. Officially. Why? I'm not quite sure - I think it's just starting to annoy me - the set upm the color scheme, just the name. (Xanga? What am I, then, a Xangan? Or a Xanganite? Or perhaps a Qdflkdasklfadsfad?!) So, farewell noble xanga, thou hast served me well!
Now now, don't panick - and you know you were! - I'll still be helping you all out with my unique commentary, just in another setting, just that of Blogspot. Not so much on their main page, of course, but on my blog, which is, in and of itself, indescribably awesome.
So, if you do not have a blogspot account - sign up for one, so that you may once again comment on my wonderful, and yet downright bizarre ideas. Or you could not. but that's a personal decision, between you and your computer, so make it wisely.
Valete amicus! | | |
| W00t! Let's hear it for randomely waking up at 5:18 for no reason, and getting up and drinking chai tea!
Now that I've checked my email, and since I've finished the homework I should have done last night, I'm sure you know what this means....Early morning Civ4! More later, I've got to go play before school. Nothing get's the day started right like a good game of Civ4.....
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| Fear the mighty hamsters on a plane! (HOAP!)
Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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| This past weekend, I went white water rafting with my Boy Scout troop. Camping is fun; camping and then going white water rafting is even more fun. Nearly getting yourself killed going down the Gauley river, feeling the '50 degree water soak into your shoes and hair, getting forcibly pushed out a your raft by someone, then getting revenge on them a few minutes later, hijacking other rafts - "Ay, avast! We be pirates!" - good times, good times. Everyone reading this should have been there....so I could push you all into the river, one by one, and laugh. And yes, I would laugh, hard.
But enough of that, although the image of dunking several of you in freezing cold water (Rebekah and Abe especially) is quite appealing, I have something else to write about: Books. People don't seem to read enough of those these days, so for the literary-challenged, I'm writing up a couple reviews:
First, Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Excellant book, I give it a 9/10. It is about a poor Russian student named Raskolnikov, who thinks he is so brilliant, like another Napoleon, that he can ignore the traditional moral laws of society in order to get what he wants. Basically, he kills a vindictive old woman to get her money, so that he can study and, in his view, fulfill his destiny as a great man. The main part of the story is after he does this, as he grapples with guilt, and the consequences of his actions, and all the various people he comes in contact with, friends, family, and enemies. A very interesting book, but if you aren't into moderately-long or wordy books, this isn't for you.
Next, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. I had to read this book for English - I'll be honest, that is the only reason I would have picked this up. It is, sadly, a romance, and thus not my favorite kind of story. (I believe romance can spice up a story as an interesting subplot, but only as a subplot, as the main focus of a story, I think it is really weak, boring, and predictable.) That said, it actually wasn't too bad of a book, and I am glad that I read it, even if I doubt that I will ever reread it. This is the story of a young orphan girl, who goes away to school, later becomes a governess, and falls in love, but there's an issue, and so on and so forth. The only truly interesting character is Mr. Rochester, who, in my opinion, rocks pretty hard, except for the lying and infidelity bits. But other than that he rocks. Anyway, like I said, romances are predictable, and this book is no exception. (Although, to be fair, Mr. Camp telling us what was going to happen before we got to that point may have contributed to this last bit!) If you're like me, and romances are not your favorite genre, you may want to skip this one, or only read it once. If you enjoy romances, and or the Victorian era of England, then I would definitely recommend it. (That would be you, Rebekah: this is definitely "A Bekah Book". Get it? Like the homeschool curriculum, Abeka? I thought I would get some more laughs out of that one, anyway....) All in all, 7.5/10 - generally well written, but the plot and characters brings it down.
Finally, I recently read Animal Farm by George Orwell. It was actually a very clever book; if you know what you're looking for you can see how well Orwell wove everything together, using this short story as an allegory to criticize the Soviet Union. (He was a socialist, but he wasn't a communist.) If you find politics or communism interesting, or you're even just looking for a short and interesting read (This one is very short) I would recommend this. 8.5/10.
That's it for now - I haven't had time to read much lately, with all my schoolwork. I'm about a third of the way through The Brothers Karamazov, though, also by Dostoyevsky, which is pretty good. If you guys are looking for a good thick book with lots of philosophical and religious musings, I would highly recommend this one. But of course, none of you are, as I'm the only one these days outside of English majors who actually reads anything but "Twinkies for the brain" books - you know, Goosebumps, or the diabolically evil and absurd "chick lit" genre of novels. I would add Harry Potter to that list, but I won't, out of respect for the soon to be dead. Well, one can dream, right?
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| Some things are simply to ridiculous, absurd, and downright creepy that you just don't talk about them, even on a blog practically dedicated to making a joke out of anything, and everything. Such a thing happened to me yesterday. I'll not discuss 9/18/06.
Anyway, all creepy/absurd things aside, I'm doing all right. I'm getting OK grades in school, (Low 90's, high 80's, I think - I'll find out next week for sure.) I'm busier than ever with all the stuff going on. I haven't gotten to play much tennis lately, I haven't had time to finish any "fun" books recently.....life goes on.
Recently I found an interesting website called Writely. It's basically a free site that let's you write and store whatever you want, but what you put up there is only available to be seen to whoever you allow it to be seen by. (Either everyone who has the link, or just specific people added to a list for each document.) Interesting stuff; it could come in handy when you're travelling, and want to keep access to documents without having to worry about carrying a big stack with you. Or something. Or maybe I just like writing random things.
Have you guys ever eaten a container of White Out? No? Why not? Just because it says "inhaling the contents can be harmful or fatal"? Sissies, it says nothing about eating it! Why shouldn't you? Maybe slather it on a piece of bread with some PB&J, you never know, it could be good. Or it could end up killing you - just make sure to write a note before you try it, something along the lines of "David is the bestest guy ever, and I give all my cool stuff, books, and money to him - the rest you can donate to charity, or something worthless like that."
Anyway, I guess I shouldn't joke about things like that. If only the thought of eating a PB&J&White Out sandwich wasn't so darn funny.
Yep, I'm officially nuts. But I did get to see the last episode of Battlestar Galactica's first season today, Kobol's Last Gleaming Part 2, so there's that. I missed it the first time around, and I just now got around to seeing it - a year and a half later. There should be some sort of time remote that let's us rewind time to watch missed season finale's. Especially since I'm going to miss the season finale's of Stargate and Stargate Atlantis this Friday, as I'm going camping. Grr....somehwere, I think Satan is laughing over his stolen time remote, knowing that I could really use it and that he's never going to share.
DARN YOU LUCIFER!!!
Anyway....nothing quite like electronically yelling at the devil to keep you from doing your homework. I guess I should get back to that. Essays, summaries, quotes, scientific notation, and the like. If only I had a PB&J&WO sandwich right about now....
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