Devoid
There you sit, devoid of expression. Your mind races, in automation. Your eyes glazed over, waiting for the day to end. For the next day of lifelessness to begin.
Your mind dull and closed. So many ideas flood your head, not yours. Never yours. Your thoughts don't matter.
No time for your thoughts. No time for your beliefs, your ideas, your motives.
Glazed mind. Glazed world.
They silence you with work. They silence you with hopelessness. Days flood by. They never took your mind, just hid it away. Your world inside is still inside. You would write if you could. You would express if you could. But they take away your ability to think for yourself to express yourself with the words of others they inject into you like a virus. They expect your retention to keep your silent. But it remains.
You sit and stare devoid of emotion. But you have emotions. If only you had the time to express them.
That's the effect school is having on this blog. I will write when I can. My apologies for the lack of posts.
The Grades Aspect of Life
Grades. Life. Intertwined in one ironic massacre.
Every student entertains the idea of using the least amount of effort to achieve the highest amount of payout. Apathy overflows. Driven for knowledge? No. Driven to satisfy the purpose of education, to better society? No. Driven to better oneself? No. Driven by maniacal parents? Yes. Driven to be good enough for that college? Yes. But driven to be better than expectations? Never.
So there we go. With our faces to the books just enough to survive. To appease the masses.
When did we lose sight of the realities of education? I blame those who say curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity is what SHOULD drive education and life. Lack of curiosity kills education.
In Review: Pandora Radio (Website)
It is my pleasure today to write a formal review of a website I use almost every time I am on my computer. The website in question, Pandora.com, is the home of a wonderful free web application that lets the user listen to nonstop music.
One of the great selling points of Pandora is that it is free! Applications such as Rhapsody and Napster require you to pay for their services. Pandora, on the other hand, is funded by ads. Also unlike other free radios, there are no ads in the actual audio of the radio. Instead, the background and parts of the web page are changed to display the ads.
The lack of ads in the audio in addition to streaming, free music may remind you of Last.fm. One major and defining difference between Pandora and Last.fm is that Pandora is web-based and therefore does not need to be installed or downloaded; Pandora can be used on any computer with Flash.
Another useful feature of Pandora is the ability to use stations to listen to music. Like your car stereo system, stations can be "programmed" and saved. Pandora uses the "Music Genome Project" to use keywords and your own input to play music that you will like. Additionally, the music Pandora plays for you to listen to will be more and more accurately enjoyable to you. For each song that plays, you can say "I like it" or "I don't like it" and the program will find trends in the songs you enjoy and the songs you don't enjoy and will find other songs and bands that follow the same patterns.
With no obtrusive ads, free service, and no downloads, Pandora is truly the greatest radio player to use. The patterns and variety in the possibilities of stations make Pandora a worthwhile radio player. Stations can be set to find songs of a similar genre, artist style, or even style of a song. Whether you are interested in constant critique of songs or you would just like to have the music playing in the background, Pandora easily molds to your mood and sets the scene the way you want it, without you even having to tell it to.
So check it out. Pandora Radio. Listen to Free Internet Radio. Find new music. It's definitely worth checking out.
TWLOHA
I posted this on an old blog a while ago. It's got good information, so I thought I'd post it here.
Let me just say “TWLOHA” is probably the greatest organization I've heard of in a long time. For those of you that don’t know, TWLOHA is an acronym for “To Write Love On Her Arms” and it’s all about hope and love for people who are suicidal and self-mutilate, etc.
The way this organization is a lot different than others is that it’s spread via bands. Many bands are a part of the organization and sport TWLOHA t-shirts. Although wearing a shirt may not seem very impactful, this spreads the organization. Also, money from selling the shirts goes to a variety of other organizations that help suicidal/SI people.
LOVE is the movement.
Trail Mix
Trail mix. Heaven. Is there a difference?
Here sit I, enjoying a "Monster" trail mix bag filled with peanuts, raisins, m&m's, chocolate drops, and peanut butter drops. I've already eaten half of the bag in this one sitting, just so you know.
What gets me going most of all about this trail mix is the presence of "chocolate drops" and "peanut butter drops". I'm quite bothered about the idea that Archer Farms, owned by Target, deems themselves too cool for "chocolate chips" but instead has "chocolate drops". What the heck?
If I ever become the owner of a trail mix company, I will definitely include pretzels and also marshmallows in the mix. I think that would be the most pleasure-inducing snack of the century.
Yum.