ModernGeek

Hello all, I noticed there were no comments on the last post! *laughs* Actually, if there had even been one comment I would have been surprised, Chant is something that you either are obsessed with, or think it's impossibly dull.

I've just started watching "Death Note"(it's an anime series), and I totally love it. Here's a summary of the plot.

Light Yagami is a brilliant, but bored, high school student who resents the crime and corruption in the world. His life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground in the year 2003. The Death Note's instructions claim that, if a human's name is written within it, that person shall die. Light is initially skeptical of the Death Note's authenticity, believing it is just a prank. However, after experimenting with it and killing two criminals, Light is forced to admit that the Death Note is real. After meeting with the true owner of the Death Note, a Shinigami named Ryuk, Light seeks to become "the God of the new world" by passing his judgment on criminals.

Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira" (derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Killer"), is located in Japan. L also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a race to prove mental superiority between the two begins.

Light is clearly an evil, insane person, but yet somehow you don't want him to be caught. The whole series is very dark, and makes your brain do mental gymnastics.

March is officially declared Boycott RIAA(Recording Industry Association of America) month.

hehe, can't wait to see what happens!

My Spanish teacher assigned the weirdest assignment today. We have to bring a picture of ourselves, our family, our pet etc. to class. She assigned it for no aparrent reason. Now I have to find a decent picture of myself... wish me luck...

I'm leaving for this *takes a deep breath* stupid, dumb, idiotic, pointless, time-wasting, retreat that I have to go to tomorrow. I'm coming back Sunday, but still I'm dreading it. Sixty kids all who would all be rather anywhere else then there will all be packed into one space at the same time.... oh boy, what a sight this will be....

-Moderngeek

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've had tones of stuff to do.

I'm totally exhausted right now, and quite frankly have absolutely no idea why I'm blogging instead of going to bed. But, there you go. Now, the reason I'm exhausted is because I sang Gregorian Chant yesterday from 12-5 , and all day today(and I mean ALL day), at a Gregorian Chant workshop, at my parish. Now, let me share some of my knowledge that I gained and give a short explanation of what this "Gregorian Chant" stuff is.

Wikipedia says "Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church." Gregorian chant was(and still is)the traditional music for the Catholic Mass. It was developed around the 7th century, and was most usually sung by men and boys in mass, and monks and nuns within their respective religious orders. Chant is not written in modern notation, instead using square notes that look lke this.

The most unique thing about it is that it is unmetered, having no bar lines, or stricts rhythmes, and that instead of reading particular notes you read only the pattern of half steps, whole steps, seconds, thirds, fourths, etc. So, it can start on any note. Although this may seem strange to you, it's really very logical once you think about it. So, for the past day and a half I have been learning and singing Chant. Yes, I learned it reading those square notes(called neums), and yes, I actually understand them. The pieces range from simple to incredibly complicated, but even learning one piece is unbelievably rewarding. There are more chants then could be learned in several lifetimes, and to this day Gregorian Chant is the largest body of music in the world.

Now, the Catholic Church was taken over around 1970 by ridiculous, phony, stupid(the list could go on forever), so called "contemporary Catholic liturgical music"(Examples, Gather us In, mass of Creation, Soon and very soon, One bread one body), and Chant was almost forgotten. But, recently chant's been making a comeback, and chant workshops such as the one I went to today are being set up.

Okay, so after singing yesterday and all day today all 60 singers sang at the 5PM mass this Saturday night. Now, before I go on, let me say, that at my parish the people who attend the 5PM mass are the people who, really, hate mass, and just want to get in there, and get out again as quickly as possible, so that they can say they went to mass.(Attending mass is required of Catholics). And, the 5PM mass is usually the teeny-bopper mass, with guitars, drums, and all the rest of it. So, this night you had 60 extreme traditional Catholics, packed into a space with the barely Catholic crowd, singing traditional music, instead of the usual teeny-bopper music. It makes a very interesting atmosphere.

Now, if you've read all this to the end, then you can be proud, because you now know more then the average parish Catholic!*smiles*

And now... I'm going to go collapse on my bed. Did I mention that singing Chant is really draining?

-Moderngeek

EDIT: Click HERE to see a video of the workshop. 

   "We tend to think of the law as some sort of oiled machine that works according to the regulations. The truth is that the law is administered by people with a great deal of discretion over how others are treated. The wardens and correctional officials can choose to humiliate a person in whatever way they want. They can put you in prison clothes that fit or in some that are way too tight. They can tell you the time or not. Leave you to languish or make a call for you. They can insult you and lie about your status or be kind."

This is a paragraph taken from Society in Jail, an article written by Jeff Tucker about a real prison experience of one man. I can personally vouch that this really and truly did happen. I know, that after reading this, I think that jail is a punishment I would never want to inflict on another human being. And, I think, that if you read this carefully, perhaps you will feel the same.

   You know the Incredibles movie that came out in 2004? I was thinking about it today, and I realized that the movie is all about "elitism" and the idea that other people shouldn't be able to do and have certain things that the "elites" have. It's not emphasized alot, but the idea is still there. The villian "Syndrome" invents these amazing rocketboots, electro hand, etc. and he wants to sell them to everybody that there would no need for superheroes anymore. The Incredible family is fighting him to keep him from doing this. But as I said, this point isn't stressed in the movie. 

   For those of you who watch Naruto it is a great day for you!!! The fillers have FINALLY ended and Naruto Shippuuden has finally begun!!!

I was starting to get depressed about those fillers. I thought they'd never end.   

 -Moderngeek

I was wearing my "I'm blogging this." T-shirt yesterday, and someone asked me "What is a blog?" I have to say that at first I didn't know how to reply. After a pause I said something like "It's like a website but has posts in chronological order. The posts tell about your life, or anything you want." So then this person said "So, it's like an online journal? So when you say "I'm blogging this." you really mean "I'm journaling this"?" And so the discussion went on, while I tried to explain what a blog was, but this person never really did get it. I thought about it alot last night and came up with this definition which I'm going to use if I get asked that question again.

"A blog is a place where you can share your ideas, and give your opinions on other's ideas."

I really like Dilbert,(I get a comic a day by email), and about two days ago there a strip that I found so funny I just have to post it here.

Sorry it's turned to the side, but that's the only way I could get it to fit in my blog margins.

I just found about an amazing thing called lulu.com about two weeks ago. Lulu offers self-publishing. For those of you who don't know what self-publishing is go to wikipedia.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_publishing

Anyway, I think it's amazing that something like lulu can exist. I truly do. My Dad takes car of his institute's small online store(they mostly sell books on economics), so I very well know how expensive it is to publish a book, and how it takes eight months for the books to be printed. Lulu is providing a service, that I think is sure to change many things.

You know those coinstar machines that you can trade change in for dollar bills? But, how the machine charges something like a 9% charge for the service? I saw this thing on digg.com about how to hack the machine and be able to save that 9%. It was really quite simple, just pull a certain cord out at a certain time. But, I think, that you'd have to be a real slimeball to do this. It's one of those things, which I think it neat to know how to do, but I would never actually do it. Also, hacking a coinstar(or coke) machine, requires you do some actions that pretty much scream out that you hacking it, and who is going to do that in a public place, where these machines are located?

-Moderngeek

Here's just some random facts about me.