Music Review

Okay, everyone:

Today I want to tell you about a band that I heard about quite recently, called "Los Ilegales"(which translates to "The Illegals") All of their music is really catchy, and even if you don't understand Spanish, fail at Spanish, or are a native speaker, you'll enjoy the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PQATa34TrY

Pay no attention to the video, it's kind of stupid.

The beat is nice, and it's kind of reggaeton-ish, especially with the car and the gas pumps, which is probably a reference to "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee. Nice beat, nice music, and fun to listen to.

Anyways, life is good now. Holidays are here, and the world is somehow a better place now that school is out.

Also, funny new Onion headline (satirical newspaper) "States Quietly Raise Speed Limits Near Failing Schools"

That's all for now,
-- Noah

Jay & Nick

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm feeling slightly less festive today, so NO new art.
However, I got my grubby mitts on a copy of Nerdaclysm, so that's good.
Now let's return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Now, Gatsby and Nick have a lot in common. For one thing, they're both "new money" types, trying to fit into the "old money" society. Also, Gatsby also has Nick's politician-like charm, as evidenced in the party scene, where Gatsby smiles and Nick instantly thinks better of him. I actually think that Gatsby reminds Nick of the qualities of himself that he hates, which is why he says he dislikes him at the beginning of the book.

I also think that, at first, their relationship is false, and that Gatsby's using him to get to Daisy. But later on, I think that they become more like friends.

Nick and Gatsby, however, have some differences. #1, we've already seen that Gatsby has some shady connections, as evidenced by the guy that rigged the World Series in 1919. Also, Gatsby lies about his past, mainly the whole "San Francisco is in the Midwest" thing. Honestly, I can think of various people that would be ROFLing because of that statement. So, he definitely has something he wants to hide. Also, I'm going to use some logic here, and say that he's a bootlegger. Why? because everyone at his party has huge amounts of alcohol. During Prohibition.

Just food for thought.

--Noah

Winter Poem, With Excursus About The Holidays, Featuring Ranting Action One Would Normally Expect From Sydney

In case you don't know what it means, I have the definition of "Excursus" here:

ex·cur·sus

  [ek-skur-suhs]

–noun, plural -sus·es, -sus.

1.

a detailed discussion of some point in a book, esp. one added as an appendix.

2.

a digression or incidental excursion, as in a narrative.

So I'm basically using it right.

Now, we can get on with the rant-like digression, and then the winter poem. 

Don't you just love the holidays? There's the freezing cold snow, the people pointing out said snow and exclaiming "LOOK!! Global warming is a lie! It's cold outside!!". AND, they don't listen to you when you tell them atmospheric carbon is at 369 ppm or so, which is about 100 ppm higher than it was post-industrial revolution, AND that it's the hottest decade on record, AND that according to a recently created mathematical model, 75% of the freak weather systems we've had over the past several years come from carbon WE'VE put into the air. 

Oh, and of course there's the pretty general thing about family and friends and chestnuts and magical little robot elves blah blah blah etc. Oh, but don't think I'm shallow and only care about the presents. Nope, I enjoy the generic holiday activities too, like watching Fringe and Battlestar Galactica with my family and my new kitten with a mug of hot cider, singing Christmas carols as people get shot of blown to bits on TV. 

But one of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I can't wait to make my Goblins/Worgen and adventure in Uldum, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Mount Hyjal, and the Twilight Highlands. I'm literally this ==> |--------------|-------------|--------------| close to getting to level 80 (for those of you who don't know, that is how many experience bars I need to fill up before getting level 80). It's going to be SO cool.

Finally, I'm adding new art to the blog, so that's good. I'm thinking of using something I originally made up for AP Human Geography, for the "Authentic Self" project. I'm thinking navy blue boxes interspersed with either lime green or orange, with whatever color I don't pick ending up as a tertiary color.

Without further ado, here's the Winter Poem!!!

   Winter makes its presence felt, as the snowflake falls,

   Tumbling, tumbling to the ground.

   Its facets reflect the slowly fading light of the day

   As the sun sinks below the horizon, 

A shaft of sunlight hits the flake.

The snowflake falls, as must we all,

But just for a moment, a fleeting moment, 

The ray of light catches it in its warm hands,

Caressing it in its fatal embrace.

And just for a moment, a tiny blip in time,

The flake is golden.

But, like all things, the moment will, nay, must pass

And the snowflake continues its spiral,

Falling down, down

Into the white abyss of its fellows.

Anyways, C&C are welcome. Yes it's a little bit dark, but happy Christmahanukwanzaa all the same everyone.

Happy Christmahanukwanzaa to all!

--Noah

People In My Class I'm Thankful For.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we--

Oh, wait. It is Thanksgiving.
This Thanksgiving, we sit down and think about people that we're thankful for. Also, since this blog post is about people in our class we're thankful for, I'll start the lis with thanking Gaga, for somehow helping me retain my sanity during Algebra II/Trig BC, my only class marred by the unholy presence of Barry Ng and his equally unholy shenanigans (BTW, for me to say something is unholy means it's pretty bad, because I'm an atheist). Without being able to complain about Barry to someone, I would have gone totally INSANE *maniacal laugh*. Also, Jiayin for helping me in the same class with the various assignments and groupworks. Otherwise I would have had an F in that class. Also, here's yet another person who I can complain about Barry to.

Then, there are people not in this class peiod who I want to thank:

#1. My Spanish for Native Speakers class for being so awesome :D
#2. Sydney, for restraining my nascent pyromania in Chemistry class.
#3. Mr. Neris for coming up with awesome... FIERY... experiments for our class
#4. My lunch table, for actually not wanting to fail their world studies class and listening to me

And finally, there's the ever-present not-being-thankful-feeling one gets when thinking about Barry. God, talk about a downer...
Anyways, go enjoy your turkey, everyone. I'm taking advantage of this time to powerlevel to level 80. Then I'll start raiding. Naxxramas, here I come!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

(Also, does anyone know how to cranberry-proof your electronic devices?)

--Noah

Edit: apparently that would have been a good idea. Level 78!

I am a plow...

Okay, this week's blog is a little bit weird.
I kind of don't get the whole "plow" thing, but I'm going to write it anyway, so here goes...

I am a plow, an instrument used to not only till soil, but also mark boundaries. I am possibly pulled by oxen, maybe horses. I am pulled throughout a field from dawn til' dusk, and am then allowed rest (although it's the horses doing all of the work) I might be a little bit rusted, but not a lot; I am used very often. This plow is then stored in a comfortable toolshed. I also serve various other functions, as mentioned above: boundaries, farming, etc. Oh, also I am not a plow in "Farmville", if there are plows in that game. God that game is stupid. Also, like most plows, I do not do Facebook.

Okay, that might not be my best writing. But in all fairness, the topic was, as I said before, a little weird. Also, have you seen how evil Facebook is?

PURE EVIL!!

--Noah

Directions Our Class Should Take

Hey everyone (and anyone),

This week's blog is about what we should change in our class.
First of all,

LET US POST ADDITIONAL POSTS NOT RELATED TO THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST!!!!

Second of all, I don't really have a lot of complaints about the class. But what I do have in abundance are complaints about the school. First of all, the stupid spam filter thingy is STILL blocking my blog for no reason. It really annoys me. Second of all, cafeteria food. I bring my own lunch, but still, that stuff is nasty. They should at least try to make it edible...
Third of all, less homework. We get a lot of homework from all of our classes, and it really leaves us with no lives (not that I had one anyways).

That's basically it. I kind of don't like doing the project, but that's probably because i'm lazy and wait until the last minute to do things, which kind of kills any fun I could have gotten out of it...

--Noah

P.S.

Cataclysm releases on the 7th!

Modern Slavery

Okay, let's get this blog post STARTED!!! WHOO!!!

No, i'm actually not that excited about this. I'm actually mad at CPS for blocking this blog. I mean, why? for the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, WHY?

But enough with my CPS rage.

Today's post is called : Modern Slavery. It's kind of a self-explanatory title, to tell you the truth. It makes me think of the workers who work in factories in countries like India or China, and eke out a living on less than $1 USD a day. They manufacture all of our cheap consumer goods, in order to let chain stores maintain their "low, low, LOW!" prices. It also reminds me of towns in theses same countries that process e-waste. They basically take it and burn it to reduce it to the bare metals. The burning process creates pollution in the air, and also makes the rivers toxic, containing high levels of heavy metals, and contaminates it with lead and poison. It's often one of the only water sources available, and if it's not?
Well, it'll probably seep into the water system in a few years anyways, and they'll be poisoned just the same.

Why, that just sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
That was sarcasm, by the way.

--Noah

Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Puritans

So, we have to do this assignment for english: research Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Craz... er.. Puritans. Here's what I found: Hawthorne is realted to Judge Hathorne, a judge in the Salem witch trials. He was born ibn salem, and his great-great-great grandfather was a Puritan. He also probably faked an illness, because he waas injured once while playing "bat and ball" (a prototype of baseball), and became lame and invalid, even thought the doctors examined him and found nothing wrong. Faker. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and met Abraham Lincoln. Also, he had some sort of petty rivalry with Edgar Allan Poe, who reviewed his books and stories and constantly accused him of plagiarism.

Really?
Really?
He also apparently didn't have much confidence in intellectuals and artists, so he kind of kept some Puritan ideals...
After his death, there was a big dispute between his wife and his editor, and later his son was convicted of defrauding the public, by selling over 3 million shares in a nonexistent silver mine to the public.

It''s interesting the connections that he has to the Puritans, like the fact that when one woman was being put to death during the Salem witch trials she cursed his family, which was the basis for him writing the House of the Seven Gables.
Interesting stuff, eh?

I thought so too.

--Noah

When I Knew I Was an American

Hey everyone,

Today's post: When I knew I was an American. Now, when I was really little, my parents were very concerned about me keeping my Puerto Rican side intact. Thus, they talked to me in spanish until I was about 2. At this point, they were trying to get me into some sort of bilingual kindergarten program. That failed, and I had started to pick up some english. Their plan collapsed about then. I had to speak english in order to get into the good schools/kindergartens. By the time I was 3, I was speaking english fluently, and the battle began to keep my spanish. It got worse when I learned italian back when I went to Italy for a semester ( by the way, if you ever get the chance to go to Italy, take it. BEST foreign country EVER). Right now, my italian is really rusty, my spanish is good, and my english is great.

I guess I just always instinctively knew I was American. Back when I was little, I always thought I was an American, even though I was also Puerto Rican and Texan (because, in truth, Texas is the Sicily of the US). It's not like there was a certain point at which I suddenly and miraculously knew I was an American...

I think...

--Noah SS

Us Vs. Them

First of all, I'm going to put up a little disclaimer:

*WARNING*
This post contains high levels of NERDY RANTS. MAINLY ABOUT GAMES. If you don't want to listen to this (or read it, more accurately) please skip this post.

Now, to the important stuff. Today's blog topic is about "Us vs. Them" mentalities. So, immediately, I thought of what happens in WoW and on the Internet all the time. Mainly, players go around attacking and killing low-level players in starting zones. This technique is called "ganking" and it happens mainly on PvP servers (where players on one faction area allowed to attack players on the other faction at any time). Some players enjoy killing random NPCs (non-player characters) that provide quests in order to make life more difficult for other players. Some players are just jerks that go around to the capital cities killing everyone. On forums, there seems to be a definite anti Horde/Alliance feel, where players get polarized. However, as long as it doesn't end in death, it's actually kind of fun. Sure, there are people who seem to be way too focused on the game, and take it way too seriously. However, there are people who are content to let them be over-competitive and aggressive. They don't matter, because they're n00bs.

-- Noah

John Proctor: Hero... Or Stooge?

Hello again, those of you reading my blog.
It's time for today's post.

I know, what could be more fun than that?

Anyways, we read The Crucible today, and a question was posed about John Proctor, a character in the book (play? Oh, whatever). Anyways, Mr. McCarthy asked if he was (as i said in the title) a hero or a Scrooge... I mean stooge. It set me thinking, not only about the fact that I accidentally read the whole book apparently, but also that he's probably a stooge. I mean, his wife is being accused and he can't do anything. Abigail has him in a moral dilemma.If he tells the town she's lying, he has to tell them that he had an affair with Abigail.

I can imagine that would work really well:

PROCTOR: Oh hey everyone, I forgot to tell you that I had an affair with Abigail. Oh, and she's a mean, conniving little **** who's trying to kill my wife.

That would work so well...

But anyways, he's faced with a lose-lose situation, but he does persevere through it and try to save his wife, so he's a hero.

Or maybe he's both.

And now we get to the part where my head starts hurting.

-- Noah

Sinners in the Eyes of an Angry God

Anyways, it's time for this week's post.

Yay.

This week we read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, one of those really radical preacher guys back when the pilgrims traveled to the US. His sermon, whose title is reprinted above, is basically all sorts of stuff about how God hates them all so much. I could imagine being a little kid whose parents said "Hey, let's go to this awesome sermon!" and going, then being scared out of my mind that God's going to kill me...

Which I guess kind of true...

But anyways, I figure it's a really great way to enforce a theocracy, because it's propagandizing little kids by telling them to straighten up and fly right, or God's going to make you suffer horribly. Another way they squashed individual rights was by not allowing books. What a great way to get rid of opposing viewpoints! Then, there's the whole sermon thing, which really instill the fear of God (sorry for the horrible pun) in people.

How excellent.

-Noah

There Goes the Neighborhood

So I've been thinking (an it was an assignment topic anyways) about the invasion of the Americas by the European forces, and all of the horrible things that happened to the people already living here. I mean, what with the diseases (as in smallpox and hemorraghic fever) and the slavery and systematic extermination of the local population, this really would be a "there goes the neighborhood" type moment, as in "Oh my! Half the neighborhood's gone, a.k.a. dead!". In fact in some areas, the entire native population was wiped out in just 50 years. Then, of course, you have the toppling of once-mighty civilizations and empires that had stood for hundreds of years. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if the europeans had never discovered the Americas. Would overcrowding turn Europe into a heavily crowded mess of cities with barely any space in between? Would the Aztecs mount expeditions across the Atlantic and find huge megalopolises taking up all of the space, with barely any room in between and a huge income disparity? Would European nations go east to Russia or China?

Ah, I love alternate universe scenarios....

- Noah

Intros and English and Blogs... If I say "Oh My!", will I be sued?

Okay, anyways this is the intro title for my new blog. For those complete strangers who might possibly be reading this straight off the Internet, my name is Noah Suarez-Sikes, and this is part of a blog project for English. I might update it in between with random thoughts or something like that, but for now I'm going to assume that everyone reading this at the moment is part of my English class.

I'm a freshman at WY, as most of you know, and before anyone says anything, yes, I am a a bit of a geek. Okay, a LOT of a geek, given that I play World of Warcraft (don't make any no-lifer jokes). My parents are professors at DePaul University, and my dad does Photoshop and Illustrator stuff, which, coupled with the fact that I've used Blogger before, means that I'll be posting some new artwork on the website, as soon as I get off my lazy a** to do it. Also, tell me if I have any typos, because those things infuriate me.

Finally, please excuse any nerdy WoW references I make, or any references that I make, or any sort of horrible autograph pun or something like that. I can't help it...

Signing off (see?),

Noah