My Turn.

All right, since Tyler Stewart asked where my posts were -- and since I'm currently too irate to grade vocab tests, and irate enough to be honest -- here we go.
First, my opinion on sports. I think this country would be better off with more cooperation and less competition, and I think sports teach almost nothing but competition. They teach you to desire victory over the enemy; they teach you contempt for those who are not as capable -- especially if it someone on your team who is holding you back -- and they teach you to push yourself to be The Best. Not one of a team, not part of a group -- The Best You Can Be. So that, in the rarest and most extreme cases, YOU can be the one with the millions of dollars, the endorsement deals, and the apparent immunity from the law that so many professional athletes enjoy. Oh -- and the top college athletes, too. The Oregon quarterback pleads guilty to burglary, and he gets suspended for a year? Excuse me? Where's the jail time? Where's the probation? And at the very least, why does he ever get to play again at all? Oh, that's right: because Michael Vick is back in the NFL. Athletes should be glad that Shoeless Joe Jackson is dead -- and they should fear Pete Rose. But they certanly don't need to fear the American people, because we'll just keep on lying down and showing them our bellies; professional athletes are the alpha dogs, and we are their b#$%hes.
What else about sports? Oh right: they take up far too much money and time -- do you know how much this country spends on maintaining freaking golf courses? How much water gets sprayed on them so that people can whack a ball with a stick? -- away from pursuits that are much, much better for you, pursuits that develop your skills,your body, AND your mind, which no sport on Earth does. Sports teach you to practice the same movement over and over and over again until it becomes automatic -- the entire goal of sports is to eliminate the need to think about what you're doing. Now, there is a sort of Zen beauty to that, which is the real positive side of sports; but that can be accomplished in so many other ways that sports aren't worth the downside. And as for exercise? Oh, please. Sports are bad for your body. Long-term athletes end up little better than crippled from all of the injuries -- other than the ones who have career-ending injuries, or simply end up dead (rare, but not unheard of -- and when was the last time someone was killed by reading a book?). Staying in shape is a good thing, but sports don't do that. They may offer a motivation for getting in shape, but it's the running, the training, and the weight-lifting that really get you in shape, and you could do those without sports.
Not to mention the fact that jocks are jerks. And no, not everybody who plays sports is a jock, by any means -- but those who are, are jerks. I have known almost no exceptions to this, and I've been around high school athletes as long as you people have been alive. Professional athletes are probably different; college athletes often are. But then again, maybe they're just bigger jerks.
Right: now on to my favorite music.

My favorite song is either "Opiate," by Tool, or "Little Wing," by Jimi Hendrix and remade by Stevie Ray Vaughan. There are hundreds of other songs which I like almost as much, of course, but those two are the greatest. Some of my other favorites are "Lachrymosa," from Mozart's Requiem, and "What a Wonderful World," by Louis Armstrong -- especially the Over The Rainbow remix by Izzy (Hawaiian last name I can't remember.), and others.
My favorite band is Tool, though I also have to give props to The Mighty Mighty Boss-Tones, the plaidest band in the world. My favorite single musical artist is Chris Cornell, because I love Soundgarden, and Audioslave, AND his solo work -- great singer, fantastic song writer, brilliant man.
My favorite genre of music is grunge/heavy metal -- meaning Metallica, Megadeth, Korn, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Staind, Godsmack, Shinedown, and occasionally some older metal like Iron Maiden. I hate both death-metal screaming and high-pitched wailing, though, so I don't particularly like Dio or Children of Bodom or their ilk. I love all good music, though, particularly music with good singing, since I'm a singer. I do like rap, though it has to be really, really good rap; I like some country music but not much -- I don't like the Southern twang in the vocals, so it has to be country with less of an accent for me to enjoy it. I like Johnny Cash, for instance -- though Nine Inch Nails did a much better version of "Hurt," in my opinion. That's a great song, too.

Lastly: my clique? I'm halfway between a rocker and a nerd. I look like a rocker -- or maybe an angry loner with a gun under his overcoat, but y'know, to-may-to, to-mah-to -- but I think like a nerd. I love video games, reading, playing D&D; I am obsessive about homework and schoolwork and my writing; I prefer to be by myself and hate parties and partying and attention; I love Monty Python and Weird Al Yankovic and Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Then most frequent mistake others make about me is the drug thing; it comes from the rocker appearance, and the fact that I know the slang terms -- like Mary Jane, which is another word for Marijuana. In actuality, I have little more than contempt for drugs, since they make you stupid and then they make you dead, and I'd rather not be either one of those things. I don't really mind the misconception any more; I think it more funny than upsetting.

I do stereotype people, but never by race or gender. I stereotype based on appearance, mostly based on the things people want to be judged by - when you dress like a gangster, I will tend to think of you as a gangster. Or, if you're a teenager in St. Helens, as kind of an idiot. But I've known far too many people who break stereotypes, and been one myself for far too long, to judge people in any way other than the behavior they show me.


There. That's better.