floodgate.blog

I guess abrasive is not the right word, but I suppose the word I want escapes me right now. While I try to remain objective when I am shooting people down left and right, I imagine it is not taken that way. I was reading a friend’s blog last night, and she brought up a fairly involved ethical question, to which one of the replies in the comments was:

“the world is already grossly overpopulated. stupid ppl shouldn’t breed so there’s more supplies/resources to go around for the ppl already HERE.”

Now, if you can ignore the naive nature of a statement like this (well, ok, don’t ignore it, as I didn’t either!)… let’s translate this into english: whoever wrote this is spoiled beyond a level I can’t comprehend, has had everything handed to on a silver platter (probably same as spoiled), and unbelievably closed minded. I feel it is my duty (sometimes my demise) to point out to people, as they clearly are not competent enough as people to self-evaluate. Most people can accomplish this with a small internal device called a “internal-censor”. It’s like if a woman asks a man if she is fat… you don’t EVER say yes, even if in your mind you hear whale-song and elephants. Now, I seem to be going against what I am preaching here, by letting my own internal censor slide a bit.. and that’s ok, because if it helps make a point, then that’s good. I’d love to tell you where I posted this, but really, i don’t want to involve anyone directly. I pretty much tore someone’s view apart, and I don’t even know them. God Bless America

Does that make me abrasive? I think at the very least I am playfully confrontational. I enjoy a good argument, especially on off-the-wall topics (off-the-wall translates to controversial or angering). I used to be VERY closed minded, and I had it handed to me a few times when I was just way out on the wrong side of the fence, and since have worked hard to remain moderately objective. Atleast I know which types of people to avoid now.

I’m sure this latest thing will spawn off some rather interesting posts from me… most of which will anger people because “how dare I have a contrary view”…

- rd -

it’s been a while, and many things have changed. then again, many more remain unchanged. I’m not actually sure that anyone actually reads this, so if you actually do read it, drop me a line or something.

let’s see… since december 19th… I think I was done with school at that point (and I am still disappointed with that stupid C in Calc 4… I really only have myself to blame, but am happy that I escaped with a C and don’t have to repeat it!). I then went out to visit my mum and joe in hickory, and then we got on a plane to Ireland. that was pretty damn sweet. I would post a link to the pictures on here, but i’ll leave it as incentive for you to contact me and ask. the other side of this is that I really am debating the fate/future of this blog. and now, i dive into my older style of blogging… welcome back, THE BOLDED SECTION TITLES!

Polar Music

Not polar as in bears or penguins, but as in the way you consider someone who is extremely unhinged. I like to think I am moderately “hinged” myself, but like many, I have my moments. although I seriously doubt that penguins and polar bears are rocking out to my rather odd music, my tastes in music are definitely going polar. I think I go in cycles like this every now and then, but I’m thinking of the last time i strayed from my *middle of the road, plus metallica* which was freshman year at VT, when Eric across the hall got me wayyyyy into Korn and Deftones. Such an innocent looking individual thrashing about the halls of pritchard east to the deafening (due to the volume at 11) bliss of some raunchy riffs.

by more recent/modern standards, you could argue that Korn is over the hill. They went quazi-soft for a while, then tried to leap back in by sounding like every other “wannabe” alt-metal band out there (pretty much half of the warped tour — i don’t really listen to those bands anymore… it’s like Metal met Emo and then someone vomited out some music… yea, there you go).

So, my tastes have drifted to more polar regions of music (polar as in opposite, which being an EE guy, this clearly makes sense…). Now that i have my zen sleek and napster to go, i am rocking out to whatever I feel like. I just added music from Soulfly, Sepultura, Throwdown, and Coal Chamber. I of course already own the entire System of a Down discography. I also downloaded Erik Satie, Holst, Borodin, and Vivaldi. So, for many, call this polar…

I am afforded the opportunity (and unfortunate circumstance) of driving for about an hour and a half each day while commuting to/from greensboro, and this zen sleek has made that drive much less painful. Of course, I listen to a mix of classical and gut-wrenching metal while I drive (duh). As different as you might consider these two genres, they really aren’t all that different. If we can ignore some of the lyrical content and/or the screaming that accompanies metal, they really are similar musical forms. Both have main and auxiliary themes, and in my mind, are rather powerful. I listened to Holst’s “The Planets” on the way home the other day, and found myself in the same energized mood as if I had just listened to the third CD of Metallica’s Binge and Purge. I listen to Satie’s rather simplistic piano and feel soothed, yet I can follow up with Sepultura’s “Roots” and turn a 35 minute drive into… well… not 35 minutes

Middle-Aged Metallica mastered this classical-like structure to their songs, especially on Master of Puppets and …And Justice For All. I get chills listening to songs like Master of Puppets, To Live is To Die/Dyers Eve, and The Thing that Should Not Be. But, musically they are kick-ass songs.

I of course listen to random crap in between these two opposite genres, but not much. I think on the lighter side of the heavy you’ll find nickelback, and on the harder side of light you’ll find pat mcgee and DMB, but there isn’t much between those that I listen to anymore, whereas a couple of years ago, that’s all I’d listen to. I am omitting my obsession with Trance in general, but I felt it didn’t really contribute to what I was trying to say at all, therefore, OMITTED!

Name Debate

Now that I own a small “gaggle” of domains, I am struggling (once again, big shocker, i know!) with which one to really pimp out, and which one to hang on to for later times. I am so torn, as I do own a domain with my name in it (two different ones, actually), but am at odds with whether I enjoy being so identifiable online. I enjoy the degree of anonymity that can be achieved online. I’ve owned this domain (floodgate.net) for almost seven years now, and regardless of mood or temperament, I always come back to it for some reason. Although I despise the spam that I get, I reactivated a long-lost e-mail account of mine that I swore by for almost 5 years on that domain… still I don’t use it, but it’s nice to know that it’s there. I also have the pinesongs (net/com) that I also seem to drift towards, but not as often as floodgate. I also have a few other scattered ones, but really these are the ones that contend for supremacy on a daily basis. For example, floodgate only has my blog on it right now, whereas the development blog for my website, and my pictures, both reside within pinesong somewhere (in both .net and .com), and I can’t really say why, except that it was my desire at the time.

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Kind of a long and somewhat directed post today — you could argue that I should have used two separate posts (or blogs, for that matter) for this one, but you know what…

I don’t care! My blog, my rules Hopefully you enjoyed my mini-novel today.

~rd~