New Years Eve is one of those bittersweet nights. It is filled with anxiety, eagerness and general happiness of a new start. At the same time, it is filled with sadness, sorrow and dampness due to the passing of yet another precious year in our such short lives. It is the night that we truly realize the constant movement of time and find ourselves looking at our calenders wondering what happened to yesteryear.
See, the thing about time is that it is always moving. It's like a light wave/photon, always moving in one direction but never another. That area is passed, it will never pass again.
Many people feel that time moves too fast, to be honest I'm not really one of them. I feel like time moves at a good speed, it moves just right. We can accomplish so much in our lives at this speed, and it's a speed that motivates us to always do our best.
But It's still very scary that 2011 is already here and that is the thing about time. Because it moves in one direction, just the fact that it moves is very scary. Once a moment of time has gone by, once 11:33 December 31st 2010 is gone, it will never, ever repeat itself. That alone I think is what scares us so much, is why we feel time moves so fast. So it is, that the moment of 2010 is over.
and so it is, that, once again that same night (new years eve) has come and I believe it is a night of reminiscing our personal and species wide accomplishments for that year, that is what this blog post is about. Me writing a quick summarized record of 2010.
Well, 2010 had a great start. The first two months were jolly.
January of course is always nice, it's the end of the semester (first semester of grade 10,) so every thing has kind of relaxed out in a way OR everything has got really busy with preparations for exams (which at the beginning of this year is something I did not do) 24th January is my birthday (which happens to be in the middle of exams) [Which at this point I didn't really care about either] January was a happy month in general though. I had all of my friends, we were together in our own little circle. Also the opening of Burj_Khalifa is probably one of the more symbolic events of this month.
February started off great, I had my birthday party early on which was all good and fun. Later in February came the winter Olympics, which I followed pretty actively. Late February started growing darker as I realized a few of my friends and I were starting to drift away. Practiced for the CAP buyout.
March was the absolute low of this year for me. I lost 3 friends this month which is one of the most painful things anyone can go through. one of them being one of the closest friends I have ever known, the kind you hang out with every day and gone for reasons that I do not know. Obviously I messed up there some how, wish I knew how. Another being a friend I've always admired and loved but alas inevitably we drifted apart with a change in our lives. March was a hard month, one fights to get through it.
The sadness of March continued into April for me, where early April was hard but it got much better. Late in April we took a trip with my dad, stayed at Niagra falls over the weekend which was a very well needed rest and a great change :p At this point, I was having some fun in my courses. Guitar was great, History was lots of fun and interesting. English was English, civics and careers were civics and careers :P April was painful in many other ways though, and the biggest way being the BP Oil spill. I did also get my G1 drivers license this month :p
May, things started looking up. I started feeling closer to a friend who had begun to drift away, I learned to forget about the other two. On the other hand, I believe the protests in Thailand were during this month.
June, The end of the year is always an exciting thing, I still didn't worry much about exams, especially considering my easier semester. Guitar exam was fun to "study" for, I think it was the only one I really tried studying. I felt a bit closer day by day to certain friends and things looked up. Excited for summer is the general feeling from this month, every year. This years June, I think the biggest thing that I paid attention to was the FIFA world cup, soccer isn't normally a sport I enjoy. But I really got into it this year, cheered for Argentina! :)
July was huge, and tiny at the same time. On the 3rd of July, one of my biggest dreams came true. I saw Iron Maiden live at Molson. Huge. Also started this blog that same night. July 8th I received my new guitar <3. July 18th I watched Rush live in concert with my brother which once again was massive. July 29th was the night I saw Megadeth, Slayer and Testament live, again with my brother. So why was July also tiny? Because I suffered in summer camp volunteering through out the month :P
Throughout August, I was generally very excited for the release of Iron Maidens new album "The Final Frontier," which came, I heard and loved. At the same time, I was saddened and generally scared due to the floods in my native land, Pakistan.
September as usual was all about getting back to school, meeting up with friends again and getting back into the usual school routine.
In October, I took the oath for Canadian Citizenship. October was also the month that the many Chilean miners were rescued, a symbolization of human survival and effort :P
November is a lot more recent, a generally happy month. I performed for the first time at Java Jive and Pie and I feel like I'm growing closer to to a lot of my friends. Important things from this month, I think were the G20/ G8 here in Toronto and Wikileaks which is monumental for the world.
December continues the happiness from November, the year has come to a nice little conclusion for me. I can't really remember anything huge happening this month apart from in the lives of a few friends, but on the planet I think it was a quieter month =p
Well, there is my badly worded, quick summarization that misses out on every thing. It fails to capture the beauty of the moment as it should, but at least it's a small record of what this year has been like.
First song of the new year: Different World - Iron Maiden
fitting I think
Friday, December 31, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
And he realizes the miracle of life
Controversial post: This post might not necessarily be very supportive of a superior deity, I mean no offense to any one.
In this post, I guess I'll be using an analogy of human beings and other multi cellular, complex living organisms such as rats, but the point applies to every thing
that lives, and even those that don't on this planet.
On Thursday December 16th, we dissected a rat in biology class. At first, I was amongst the many who were exceptionally scared of the dissection and rather "creeped out" by it. At the same time, I was also amongst those were very excited about it. I realized that this was really a fascinating opportunity to learn about anatomy of living beings in a first hand experience sort of situation.
The dissection it self though, did bring to my mind many old realizations that I have had before. But it really made me marvel the beauty and miracle that is life even more.
I was able to see how through the smallest invisible codes, nature is able to produce an immaculate, efficient and perfect system for sustainability and existence. Inside the body, you are able to see how perfectly everything is constructed. How the natural creation of nature is so much more perfect than the most perfect robotics any human could hope to build and how it's fueled and run on something that humanity might never achieve.
Humans have of course dumbed things down to a comprehensible level, but the miracle of nature is amazing. Consider for example, the liver found in your body. Is that actually a liver? No of course not, "liver" is simply a term given to it by human beings. In reality it is another component in a perfect system. It is a natural part that nature finds necessary to perform the functions for life. The same thing applies to the lungs, the heart, the stomach and so on.
This is a very hard concept to put in to words.
Each organ, each artery, each nerve, each cell it self are so immaculately placed by nature. They are like puzzle pieces that only together combine to make a perfect system, a system that supports living beings of different needs. It is almost, as if nature it self is like a human being, like the scientists who built the first nuclear bomb, or those who first discovered the cure for another dangerous disease, with long drawn out calculations and experimentation that help to find what works and what doesn't.
Is it not almost like humans are engineered by nature in a way of formulas and connections that for sure work?
But you see my friends, that is not the case. Nature is no human being, it is no living entity but some thing so much greater. It does not think, it does not calculate, yet...Nature has, through it's own natural processes figured out a beautiful configuration for a living being. It has on it's own, without a mind to think, configured and created every thing that we know on this planet and then the trillions of others out there.
Nature is able to, without use of a mind or any thought process or anything of sort, calculate perfectly the various functions of life. It is able to calculate perfectly where the human lungs are located and what muscles contractions will break down food to be used how by cells which travel to which parts of the body.
What happens in the womb of a mother, or in the DNA replication of a cell is truly a miracle of life.
Just sit back in your comfortable chair and think for one second. You exist. That's right, you can feel your keyboard under your fingers. Inside your body, the immaculate processes of millions of smaller living organisms continue on. The perfect system of your body if continuously moving.
But just the fact, that you can sit there and think, the concept of thinking. The beauty of existence. It is real, it's like a dream isn't it? But it is real apparently. The fact that you can see what you see, that out side the clouds, or the moon are in the sky. That you have friends who too are each a miracle them selves, that is amazing.
Like so, that spider I saw earlier today. Just the fact that it is in deed a living, breathing being. That it does feel fear and has it's own instincts, that it can see. That it exists, it's a miracle.
This is one of the amazing miracles of nature. Why things happen, how nature is able to manufacture such an amazing device that is life. How nature is able to cause just chemical reactions to occur. How we all exist, every thing in existence is like a miracle in a way.
I'm pretty sure that every body has thought about this before, or at least a lot of people have, it's something that comes to mind often when laying in your during a night of rough insomnia.
But this is one of the many reasons I'm so fascinated by science. Science answers these questions and though I am some what disappointed in the fact that science has killed humanities ability to dream by reducing those beautiful starts and the universe to mathematical equations. It does help to answer many, many of natures amazing miracles. It gives us an insight as to how it happened. But one thing it will never take away from us all is that it is a miracle.
In this post, I guess I'll be using an analogy of human beings and other multi cellular, complex living organisms such as rats, but the point applies to every thing that lives, and even those that don't on this planet.
On Thursday December 16th, we dissected a rat in biology class. At first, I was amongst the many who were exceptionally scared of the dissection and rather "creeped out" by it. At the same time, I was also amongst those were very excited about it. I realized that this was really a fascinating opportunity to learn about anatomy of living beings in a first hand experience sort of situation.
The dissection it self though, did bring to my mind many old realizations that I have had before. But it really made me marvel the beauty and miracle that is life even more.
I was able to see how through the smallest invisible codes, nature is able to produce an immaculate, efficient and perfect system for sustainability and existence. Inside the body, you are able to see how perfectly everything is constructed. How the natural creation of nature is so much more perfect than the most perfect robotics any human could hope to build and how it's fueled and run on something that humanity might never achieve.
Humans have of course dumbed things down to a comprehensible level, but the miracle of nature is amazing. Consider for example, the liver found in your body. Is that actually a liver? No of course not, "liver" is simply a term given to it by human beings. In reality it is another component in a perfect system. It is a natural part that nature finds necessary to perform the functions for life. The same thing applies to the lungs, the heart, the stomach and so on.
This is a very hard concept to put in to words.
Each organ, each artery, each nerve, each cell it self are so immaculately placed by nature. They are like puzzle pieces that only together combine to make a perfect system, a system that supports living beings of different needs. It is almost, as if nature it self is like a human being, like the scientists who built the first nuclear bomb, or those who first discovered the cure for another dangerous disease, with long drawn out calculations and experimentation that help to find what works and what doesn't.
Is it not almost like humans are engineered by nature in a way of formulas and connections that for sure work?
But you see my friends, that is not the case. Nature is no human being, it is no living entity but some thing so much greater. It does not think, it does not calculate, yet...Nature has, through it's own natural processes figured out a beautiful configuration for a living being. It has on it's own, without a mind to think, configured and created every thing that we know on this planet and then the trillions of others out there.
Nature is able to, without use of a mind or any thought process or anything of sort, calculate perfectly the various functions of life. It is able to calculate perfectly where the human lungs are located and what muscles contractions will break down food to be used how by cells which travel to which parts of the body.
What happens in the womb of a mother, or in the DNA replication of a cell is truly a miracle of life.
Just sit back in your comfortable chair and think for one second. You exist. That's right, you can feel your keyboard under your fingers. Inside your body, the immaculate processes of millions of smaller living organisms continue on. The perfect system of your body if continuously moving.
But just the fact, that you can sit there and think, the concept of thinking. The beauty of existence. It is real, it's like a dream isn't it? But it is real apparently. The fact that you can see what you see, that out side the clouds, or the moon are in the sky. That you have friends who too are each a miracle them selves, that is amazing.
Like so, that spider I saw earlier today. Just the fact that it is in deed a living, breathing being. That it does feel fear and has it's own instincts, that it can see. That it exists, it's a miracle.
This is one of the amazing miracles of nature. Why things happen, how nature is able to manufacture such an amazing device that is life. How nature is able to cause just chemical reactions to occur. How we all exist, every thing in existence is like a miracle in a way.
I'm pretty sure that every body has thought about this before, or at least a lot of people have, it's something that comes to mind often when laying in your during a night of rough insomnia.
But this is one of the many reasons I'm so fascinated by science. Science answers these questions and though I am some what disappointed in the fact that science has killed humanities ability to dream by reducing those beautiful starts and the universe to mathematical equations. It does help to answer many, many of natures amazing miracles. It gives us an insight as to how it happened. But one thing it will never take away from us all is that it is a miracle.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
And he dreams.
This next post is going to be a bit of a cheesy one, but then everyone needs some cheese on their pizza of life right? :p I'm sorry that it's so badly written, it's just one of things where I feel so strongly about it that I end up being pretty much word less.
Going around socializing or just internet surfing, we read all of these hypocritical posts from so many about following our dreams. Shallow posts, without meaning but just words. The same people later laugh at me when I explain my dream to them. Of course they think I'm joking, it's a bit absurd isn't it? I'm not really mad at them or anything, it's just that some dreams are hard to follow and believe in, sometimes you need genuine encouragement and not just shallow words.
On Thursday 18th November, I ended up confirming my great dream. This was the first day that I really performed music live, in a small rock band sort of setting. We played at Java Jive and Pie, playing Amaranth by Nightwish.
It was kind of sad though, I got a bit over concerned with the general sound and making sure that everyone in the audience could hear us properly that I didn't really pay much attention to the exceptionally easy song that we were playing and ended up making quite a few mistakes *heh*
I was very nervous, but not about the audience. I was nervous about what this experience would mean for me. It was a little bit of a test, to see if this was something I wanted to do again. Something I might possibly want to do for the rest of my life. Quite frankly, it passed the test.
The amazing feeling of being on stage was not lost on me. It was in it's own way ecstasy, a bit like a dream that I didn't really realize had happened until I wasn't there any more. It was then that I realize that this really is the one true passion I have and is the one real thing I want to do with my life.
I have made blog posts before about how I want to live a life that's different, how I want to find a way to make my self immortal, and this is kind of what I want to do with it.
If you haven't really got the big idea yet. My big dream is to actually be a musician. A bit absurd isn't it? I'm here with all of these brilliant friends who are going to go on to become great human beings who help our entire race through various fields. And here I am with my own dream of becoming a musician, an entertainer to say the least, maybe a bit of a selfish dream isn't it?
Right now, at this moment in life, I know nothing that I love as much as music. I know nothing that I have ever loved as much as music, and I know that if there is any one thing that I can do for my entire life and live a fulfilling, joyful life, this is it.
My entire life, I've never really known what to do. I wasn't one of those kids who instantly knew that I wanted to be a doctor growing up, or an engineer or anything. I was always confused. I also know I'm not the only one like this. And now, the hour approaches when we have to make decisions that will affect our entire life. Things like picking which university and which field to go into. Quite frankly, I still have no idea what I want to go into.
It's the saddest thing, that music, my one true passion. Is something that I have absolutely no natural talent at. Being born into a very non-musical family has definitely had it's affects on me. As an example, I cannot sing at all, while I do have a decent natural voice, I also have a funny accent, and am pretty tone-emulating deaf. In the sense that I'm not tone deaf in hearing, but in emulation. I'm also not even close to perfect pitch with my hearing. My sense of rhythm is for the most part naturally horrible, but through a lot of hard work, it has progressed so far. Ask any body in my family to keep a steady beat and you will be met with a laughable failure.
I only really started listening to any music at about the age of 10, and I only started listening to actual, genuine music in grade 9, the same time I started playing music properly. Such a short time, I know. But in this short time, I cannot believe the passion that has developed for music inside me. I feel like there's really nothing else for ME in the world. Nothing has felt as important to me as music. Discluding people of course.
A stupidly long and hard road lies ahead of me. As far as I have gotten with my instruments (guitar, drums, bass, future instruments) has all been through hard work. While other kids sit at computers playing Call of Duty, I am in my room, playing guitar.
But it doesn't feel like work of any sort when I play music, it feels so fun. It's amazing to always be challenging yourself. I've also noticed that unlike most of my musician friends, I am no fan of learning songs. I love improvising or just creating my own stuff. What does that mean? I don't know. I guess it means I like trying to be original?
To be honest, becoming a rich musician would be a pretty easy task. I already know I'm good enough to a point where I can go to a record company and ask them for a job as a session guitarist that would just play the easy parts that make our modern day pop songs. Songs that are made purely for money and not for the eternal beauty of art. But this isn't what I want to do, to be told what to do, make plenty of money and live with the knowledge that I helped mind game millions of people into making money for a company.
I want to be my own musician, I want to make my own art. This also basically means I'm going to die poor, unless I get very very very good. So yeah, that hard work factor does kind of come back and hit me in the face.
There we go my friends, THAT is my dream. Are you still going to encourage that I follow it? Or will you laugh and think that it's a hopeless cause. Will you think that I am joking, because it cannot possibly be true? Well it is.
It's a hard dream to even dream, one is faced by constant discouragement and frowning.
But what does this mean? Why do I still go to school and trudge over my math homework instead of practicing my guitar? Well because obviously I'm not an idiot!
In life, we must always strive to make it the best that it possibly can be. To me, I feel like playing live to 30'000 screaming fans would be the best possible experience I can have in life. But it is not the only good experience I can have in life. There are so many other things that are still worth living for.
That is why I still go to school and get an education. I do have other passions that are more secure for a future. Things like the sciences and history. I am still going to go to university, and try to get a job after leaving. But the entire time, I am going to strive to chase my true passion. I will try my best to become a successful musician.
Which is why when any body asks me what I want to do in life, I reply with a tardy: "scientist by day, rockstar by night"
If I pursue a career in some field of science that interests me, I will still have a good life. If I keep music as just a hobby, I will still have a good and happy life (assuming I make it so,)I just feel that it isn't the best of happiest life I could have.
That would be being a rockstar. Which I already know is a bit more than just the lit stage.
That is why I still plan to go to university and get a job of some sort. So that I do have something secure to fall back on, if my dreams and hopes fail (as they very likely will)
It's unlikely I will ever really become a rock star, maybe I am dreaming too big. But that's just it, if you shoot for the stars, you might just make it to the top of the tree right?
Now my turn for a genuine passage about following our dreams.
Live your life, assuming there is no heaven. Life it is as if when you die, you really die and there are no second chances. Find what you love, a true deep passion and chase it. Make it something that you actually want to do for the rest of your life, chase it. Make it your dream, chase it. Like a race dog after the fake rabbit, chase that dream. Because this is your one and only life. You have that one chance to make it the best you possibly can. Remember, you cannot do every thing. But you can do so many things that may at some point seem impossible.
Remember "We avoid risks in life, to make it safely to death" Don't get stuck living a life of repeated actions and motions. Stand out from the general crowd, do not get caught up in the web of the capitalist markets, make your own decisions because you do have the power to do that.
But that's just Zammar talking, he's a noob who dreams big and some day wants to go be a rockstar, there is no way on Earth he could possibly be right. right? ;)
Going around socializing or just internet surfing, we read all of these hypocritical posts from so many about following our dreams. Shallow posts, without meaning but just words. The same people later laugh at me when I explain my dream to them. Of course they think I'm joking, it's a bit absurd isn't it? I'm not really mad at them or anything, it's just that some dreams are hard to follow and believe in, sometimes you need genuine encouragement and not just shallow words.
On Thursday 18th November, I ended up confirming my great dream. This was the first day that I really performed music live, in a small rock band sort of setting. We played at Java Jive and Pie, playing Amaranth by Nightwish.
It was kind of sad though, I got a bit over concerned with the general sound and making sure that everyone in the audience could hear us properly that I didn't really pay much attention to the exceptionally easy song that we were playing and ended up making quite a few mistakes *heh*
I was very nervous, but not about the audience. I was nervous about what this experience would mean for me. It was a little bit of a test, to see if this was something I wanted to do again. Something I might possibly want to do for the rest of my life. Quite frankly, it passed the test.
The amazing feeling of being on stage was not lost on me. It was in it's own way ecstasy, a bit like a dream that I didn't really realize had happened until I wasn't there any more. It was then that I realize that this really is the one true passion I have and is the one real thing I want to do with my life.
I have made blog posts before about how I want to live a life that's different, how I want to find a way to make my self immortal, and this is kind of what I want to do with it.
If you haven't really got the big idea yet. My big dream is to actually be a musician. A bit absurd isn't it? I'm here with all of these brilliant friends who are going to go on to become great human beings who help our entire race through various fields. And here I am with my own dream of becoming a musician, an entertainer to say the least, maybe a bit of a selfish dream isn't it?
Right now, at this moment in life, I know nothing that I love as much as music. I know nothing that I have ever loved as much as music, and I know that if there is any one thing that I can do for my entire life and live a fulfilling, joyful life, this is it.
My entire life, I've never really known what to do. I wasn't one of those kids who instantly knew that I wanted to be a doctor growing up, or an engineer or anything. I was always confused. I also know I'm not the only one like this. And now, the hour approaches when we have to make decisions that will affect our entire life. Things like picking which university and which field to go into. Quite frankly, I still have no idea what I want to go into.
It's the saddest thing, that music, my one true passion. Is something that I have absolutely no natural talent at. Being born into a very non-musical family has definitely had it's affects on me. As an example, I cannot sing at all, while I do have a decent natural voice, I also have a funny accent, and am pretty tone-emulating deaf. In the sense that I'm not tone deaf in hearing, but in emulation. I'm also not even close to perfect pitch with my hearing. My sense of rhythm is for the most part naturally horrible, but through a lot of hard work, it has progressed so far. Ask any body in my family to keep a steady beat and you will be met with a laughable failure.
I only really started listening to any music at about the age of 10, and I only started listening to actual, genuine music in grade 9, the same time I started playing music properly. Such a short time, I know. But in this short time, I cannot believe the passion that has developed for music inside me. I feel like there's really nothing else for ME in the world. Nothing has felt as important to me as music. Discluding people of course.
A stupidly long and hard road lies ahead of me. As far as I have gotten with my instruments (guitar, drums, bass, future instruments) has all been through hard work. While other kids sit at computers playing Call of Duty, I am in my room, playing guitar.
But it doesn't feel like work of any sort when I play music, it feels so fun. It's amazing to always be challenging yourself. I've also noticed that unlike most of my musician friends, I am no fan of learning songs. I love improvising or just creating my own stuff. What does that mean? I don't know. I guess it means I like trying to be original?
To be honest, becoming a rich musician would be a pretty easy task. I already know I'm good enough to a point where I can go to a record company and ask them for a job as a session guitarist that would just play the easy parts that make our modern day pop songs. Songs that are made purely for money and not for the eternal beauty of art. But this isn't what I want to do, to be told what to do, make plenty of money and live with the knowledge that I helped mind game millions of people into making money for a company.
I want to be my own musician, I want to make my own art. This also basically means I'm going to die poor, unless I get very very very good. So yeah, that hard work factor does kind of come back and hit me in the face.
There we go my friends, THAT is my dream. Are you still going to encourage that I follow it? Or will you laugh and think that it's a hopeless cause. Will you think that I am joking, because it cannot possibly be true? Well it is.
It's a hard dream to even dream, one is faced by constant discouragement and frowning.
But what does this mean? Why do I still go to school and trudge over my math homework instead of practicing my guitar? Well because obviously I'm not an idiot!
In life, we must always strive to make it the best that it possibly can be. To me, I feel like playing live to 30'000 screaming fans would be the best possible experience I can have in life. But it is not the only good experience I can have in life. There are so many other things that are still worth living for.
That is why I still go to school and get an education. I do have other passions that are more secure for a future. Things like the sciences and history. I am still going to go to university, and try to get a job after leaving. But the entire time, I am going to strive to chase my true passion. I will try my best to become a successful musician.
Which is why when any body asks me what I want to do in life, I reply with a tardy: "scientist by day, rockstar by night"
If I pursue a career in some field of science that interests me, I will still have a good life. If I keep music as just a hobby, I will still have a good and happy life (assuming I make it so,)I just feel that it isn't the best of happiest life I could have.
That would be being a rockstar. Which I already know is a bit more than just the lit stage.
That is why I still plan to go to university and get a job of some sort. So that I do have something secure to fall back on, if my dreams and hopes fail (as they very likely will)
It's unlikely I will ever really become a rock star, maybe I am dreaming too big. But that's just it, if you shoot for the stars, you might just make it to the top of the tree right?
Now my turn for a genuine passage about following our dreams.
Live your life, assuming there is no heaven. Life it is as if when you die, you really die and there are no second chances. Find what you love, a true deep passion and chase it. Make it something that you actually want to do for the rest of your life, chase it. Make it your dream, chase it. Like a race dog after the fake rabbit, chase that dream. Because this is your one and only life. You have that one chance to make it the best you possibly can. Remember, you cannot do every thing. But you can do so many things that may at some point seem impossible.
Remember "We avoid risks in life, to make it safely to death" Don't get stuck living a life of repeated actions and motions. Stand out from the general crowd, do not get caught up in the web of the capitalist markets, make your own decisions because you do have the power to do that.
But that's just Zammar talking, he's a noob who dreams big and some day wants to go be a rockstar, there is no way on Earth he could possibly be right. right? ;)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
And he remembers
This date, November 11, is a very humbling one. A day of deep reflection, a day when instead of looking at the ground of where we tread, we look at the sky. The unchanging sky that those before us saw in their dieing moments.
Remembrance day.
For nearly 100 years, ever since the official end of world war I, this date has been a day of solemn remembrance. To any and all who have sacrificed in a war. There are so many that fall into this category, and I feel that many of them are not as reflected upon as we would want them to be.
This is the day we remember every sacrifice. The sacrifice for a mother of her lost son, of a family for their home that was destroyed, of the many who starved due to rationing, conscription, the sacrifice of having to live your life in fear, the sacrifice of having another mans blood on your hands, the psychological trauma, stress, health conditions, death.
Now, if you do read this blog regularly enough, you're probably expecting me to go on about how I feel that our generation does not appreciate this day enough.
To be honest, I feel that to be partially true, but also to be over stated. I know that most people who realize the occasion do take the solemn time to think, for a few minutes about the importance of the day. AFter all, we are still living our own lives and we cannot always live in the past. How ever, I feel that many do not delve deep enough into the reflection, and they think only about how these lives meant their lives today. Once or twice my friends, try to put your self in a soldiers shoes.
There are certain things in life that are completely un negotiable, certain loyalties that you follow. An example would be your dormant love for your parents. No matter how much one may think he hates his parents, naturally his heart and body has affection to them.
Another, is a soldiers duty to his band of brothers, to the flying flag of the country he represents. This is why soldiers are out there, they have an undying loyalty to fight for their country, for their families and for their friends. To have the strength of will, of mind and power.
Many of the tasks we do in our every day lives have a purpose and task. We go to the library to check out a book, we are loyal to this author, so we want to check out his book. But then we are weak. Our minds can be so easily diverted, we do not go to the library because we are too lazy and just want to sit around on Facebook.
This is not a soldiers life, they go away from home to fight for home. While away, they risk life and death every day for their country, for their flag. This is the un negotiable loyalty of a soldier. To have the mind and will to assault a fortified position, because they know that it has to be done, despite the fact that they will very likely die. That is a sign of absolutely unwavering loyalty. This is, I feel one of the greatest qualities of a human being.
Read the post right below this one, it talks about our perspective of reality. This is a very similar situation, hopefully, we may never know what it feels like to be a soldier or any victim of war. But we can imagine my friends, on this day put yourself in someone else's shoes. Imagine a victim of a war, pick any war and just imagine that today, November 11 you are that person. Then, I think we may truly appreciate the sacrifices that have brought humanity this far.
War, I believe is necessary. I feel that the human population does indeed need controlling, wars have also helped us to advance so far technologically.
However, it is nothing to be taken lightly. Of every war that has happened in history, those people lived through suffering like that which you can never imagine. Did a girl or guy ever break your heart? Well imagine that pain magnified a thousand times. People who saw through eyes, thought through a mind, felt through their hands, smelt their rationed dinner and chewed on the tasteless junk. These people need to be commemorated, they need to be remembered.
Imagine my friends, if you lived through that. In your dieing moments, would you too not hope that some day that the world remembers? That this same event never happens again?
Or maybe you survived, would you ever want to experience this again, would you ever want someone else to experience it again?
Remembrance day. While it may only have started on November 11th 1918, and isn't specified in every country, I feel that this day represents so much more than the sacrifices of human beings in war. I feel that it represents the struggle of humans as a species through out our history.
There is so much behind that last statement, take it for what you take it.
But this day my friends, this is a day we remember those who sacrificed in war. I'm not going to be cliche and say "so that we may live our lives today." No. That is not the sole reason why these people sacrificed.
They were put in a situation of horrible hardships. A human instinct to survive kicked in. A situation which no individual should have to face. Of course they sacrificed, but not for us. Our great life is a result of their sacrifice.
A man (or woman) I feel must be remembered by more than who they were, they must be remembered for their ideals, for what they stood for. To only remember these great heroes because of what they did for us, I feel is too selfish. These were human beings like me and you, remember what was important to them in their lives, why they truly did what they did.
And then, I think you will truly remember.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSJ8rDlBZ_I
Friday, November 5, 2010
And he inspects his perspective of reality
The reason I created this blog was to have a place where I can express my own views on every thing, where any one who might care can see through my eyes, so that they may see or at least glimpse the way I look at things, a little glimpse into my existence, my life my mind I suppose. I think this post is at least slightly related to just that.
Recently, I have been reminded just how different life can be through another persons eyes and another persons mind set. Sometimes, for example a friendship to you may be something very different to someone else. The way we look at anything and every thing is so different, every body thinks differently.
I think one of the main reasons for the way people think is what we experience in life, apart from just the way our neurons work or what ever, actual life experiences will always change the way someone views something. I suppose that is pretty obvious isn't it? but it's an important point.
We live, we feel, see, hear and touch so that we may compute what is going on, so that we may compute "reality." But really my friends, what is reality? Do we not live our lives unaware of so much that happens in "reality," how to us in specific, that which is happening is not a reality but just a piece of news?
Somewhere in the world, a young orphan breathes his last breath the same moment you are reading this sentence. Is that a reality? What is it to you but just a thought, an abstract idea, a creation of your mind, an image of a dying child, fair haired, covered in soot and dust laying on a street pavement, his last sight the very stone that so many have stepped on?
But what is it to that orphan? To him, this abstract idea of yours, it's something that he actually touches, something he feels, smells and hears. He can sense his death is coming, he can feel that his time has come, he can sense his own fear, a feeling of anxiety building up inside of him, unsure of what will happen now.
Take your hand off the mouse and touch your nose, do you feel your smooth human skin? Is that a reality? What is that to the orphan? He simply dreams of it, of being able to sit in a well heated room at a technological piece of marvel reading a cool guys' blog. To him, your reality, is an abstract idea, a creation of his mind.
Earlier today, maybe one of your good friends came up to and started telling you a story, of an event that you did not witness. You stand there and listen, try to create an image in your mind of what happened to this friend of yours. But what is it to your friend? A very real memory, an exact recreation of every small detail, the experience of feeling and touching and smelling and hearing in those moments that this event happened. The same thing that to you is nothing but an abstract thought, is to your friend something entirely different.
Think about our beautiful planet, imagine it to have a personality, a mind of its own. Everything happening to it or anything near by our planet would experience. But what would that which happens at the Eagle nebula, some 7'000 light years away be to our planet but just an abstract thought?
This is really why we miss so much in our social lives, where somethings which may mean so much to us mean nothing to our friends.
It feels to me, like reality is anything and everything that happens to anything and everything. A lion in Africa stalking his prey is just as real as me on this computer typing a blog post.
How ever, the difference is really in our perspective of reality. Everyone has a different perspective, a different "reality" to their minds so to speak. It's a difficult concept to grasp and put into words, but in a way, my reality is so very different from yours, dear reader.
We live our lives with a little "bubble" around us, everything that happens in our "bubble", is everything that we experience. To us, that forms the reality of our minds. Often times, our bubble of reality may touch that of a friends or family or anything and we may get a glimpse into their reality. An example of this would be you reading my blog, you are getting a glimpse into the reality of my mind.
And this is where the earlier concept comes back to mind, our own "reality" is so distorted because of how different every human being looks at everything. We think so differently that everything appears differently, at this point one must question what really is reality?
What we perceive, is it really reality? There is reality, and that is the scientific fact of everything happening. And then there is what we call reality, which is what we perceive.
We all see from our own eyes and feel from our own senses. We live a life and see many things, we fool our selves into calling this reality.
But in reality, it's almost like we're all living our own personal little fantasy, isn't it?
Recently, I have been reminded just how different life can be through another persons eyes and another persons mind set. Sometimes, for example a friendship to you may be something very different to someone else. The way we look at anything and every thing is so different, every body thinks differently.
I think one of the main reasons for the way people think is what we experience in life, apart from just the way our neurons work or what ever, actual life experiences will always change the way someone views something. I suppose that is pretty obvious isn't it? but it's an important point.
We live, we feel, see, hear and touch so that we may compute what is going on, so that we may compute "reality." But really my friends, what is reality? Do we not live our lives unaware of so much that happens in "reality," how to us in specific, that which is happening is not a reality but just a piece of news?
Somewhere in the world, a young orphan breathes his last breath the same moment you are reading this sentence. Is that a reality? What is it to you but just a thought, an abstract idea, a creation of your mind, an image of a dying child, fair haired, covered in soot and dust laying on a street pavement, his last sight the very stone that so many have stepped on?
But what is it to that orphan? To him, this abstract idea of yours, it's something that he actually touches, something he feels, smells and hears. He can sense his death is coming, he can feel that his time has come, he can sense his own fear, a feeling of anxiety building up inside of him, unsure of what will happen now.
Take your hand off the mouse and touch your nose, do you feel your smooth human skin? Is that a reality? What is that to the orphan? He simply dreams of it, of being able to sit in a well heated room at a technological piece of marvel reading a cool guys' blog. To him, your reality, is an abstract idea, a creation of his mind.
Earlier today, maybe one of your good friends came up to and started telling you a story, of an event that you did not witness. You stand there and listen, try to create an image in your mind of what happened to this friend of yours. But what is it to your friend? A very real memory, an exact recreation of every small detail, the experience of feeling and touching and smelling and hearing in those moments that this event happened. The same thing that to you is nothing but an abstract thought, is to your friend something entirely different.
Think about our beautiful planet, imagine it to have a personality, a mind of its own. Everything happening to it or anything near by our planet would experience. But what would that which happens at the Eagle nebula, some 7'000 light years away be to our planet but just an abstract thought?
This is really why we miss so much in our social lives, where somethings which may mean so much to us mean nothing to our friends.
It feels to me, like reality is anything and everything that happens to anything and everything. A lion in Africa stalking his prey is just as real as me on this computer typing a blog post.
How ever, the difference is really in our perspective of reality. Everyone has a different perspective, a different "reality" to their minds so to speak. It's a difficult concept to grasp and put into words, but in a way, my reality is so very different from yours, dear reader.
We live our lives with a little "bubble" around us, everything that happens in our "bubble", is everything that we experience. To us, that forms the reality of our minds. Often times, our bubble of reality may touch that of a friends or family or anything and we may get a glimpse into their reality. An example of this would be you reading my blog, you are getting a glimpse into the reality of my mind.
And this is where the earlier concept comes back to mind, our own "reality" is so distorted because of how different every human being looks at everything. We think so differently that everything appears differently, at this point one must question what really is reality?
What we perceive, is it really reality? There is reality, and that is the scientific fact of everything happening. And then there is what we call reality, which is what we perceive.
We all see from our own eyes and feel from our own senses. We live a life and see many things, we fool our selves into calling this reality.
But in reality, it's almost like we're all living our own personal little fantasy, isn't it?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
And he observes a common social effect amongst his friends
Wednesday 20th October was the day to wear purple so that we may commemorate the suicides that are caused by homophobia. To commemorate the deaths of regular people like me and you who felt they were alone due to a common social fear, who felt they had no other choice and there was nothing in life for them but to move on and explore that void beyond that tempts us all. As can be seen by this picture, I did try to participate in this event. Sadly however, I had no real purple clothes hence I worse my closest (maroon) and added a sign to it (:
I have however come to learn, that homophobia is every where. Even in this school and country where all people are seemingly accepted without argument for what they are, homophobia amongst other forms of discrimination thrives. I mean it's easy enough to argue, you can go up to someone and ask if they are homophobic, you would usually receive a response in the negative, but honestly I feel that not every one truly understand just what they are.
I my self have gone up to many guys and attempted to do some rather interestingly gay things as a curious experiment, I wish to observe their reaction. Almost always, you would get the same reaction, one of disgust and fear in their eyes, the same people who earlier claimed to not be homophobic. How ever, I also have faith that if a homosexual person was actually to come up to most of these people, sit down and explain their predicament, they would be at least understanding to an extent they wouldn't shun him/her but they would definitely not reach out their hand in friendship. What most people also don't understand, is that initial shunning that I received, that from every body who did it would be enough to drive one to suicide.
Why do people do this my friends? Those who know that sexuality is not a choice, but rather something you are born with, why do they turn this blind eye?
Well I suppose the answer is pretty obvious and that is the social effect really.
I think most people feel that by not acting disgusted and what not, they send the wrong message across to their friends and peers and basically every one there. They feel that if left to even talk to this person, they would cause a drop in their own popularity. Yet it's a funny thing, because I think most people don't truly notice it when other people do it, it doesn't bother them as much.
Usually, people don't think about it, they just react accordingly to instinct, to what they have been growing up with around their friends and the popular media
Why do you do this my friends? Why do we all just try to fit the same pattern, try to be just like each other, to have many friends who think of us as just another friend? Why not try to create your own unique personality that every one sees, so that they you are so more easily identifiable and are thought of as more of an individual, why not be unique? Why just try to fit the popular trend, after all only dead fish go with the flow. I suppose most of my fish friends are dead then :/
I see it increasingly every day, certain friends of mine that change their routines, go against their nature and try to force something new simply to achieve a goal of appearing different in other peoples eyes. They say what would be expected to fit the scenario, to make every body else laugh instead of saying what their instinct and nature tells them to. This is one of the many sadnesses of high school, but of course I think I"m making it a bit cliche too.
Back to the point, homosexuality really is not a choice. I want you, my friends to think about it. In this society of ours where homosexual people are seemingly shunned to no end to a point where many commit suicide, what person would rightly choose to go into this pit of infernal hell and choose to be a homosexual? What kind of thing would drive them to it?
And another point, if homosexuality was a choice, then the bodies chemistry would remain unchanged. As in, men would still be turned on by women and women still by men even though they "choose" to like men instead of women. Assuming they choose, there is no feasible way that two men would be able to participate in sexual intercourse with their choice in mind simply because their bodys chemistry would not be triggered by a member of the same sex.
No it's pretty obvious that homosexuality is something that a person is born with. Many claim that "god" created Adam and Eve, a man and woman to reproduce, well did "god" also create mental diseases such as Autism? oh he did? When after creating Adam and Eve? well then I guess he must have created homosexuality after wards too.
I'm actually pretty sure that the whole religions being anti homosexual must have arisen during the middle ages or so to create a distraction away from the church doing what ever they were doing. But that's not in my place to discuss.
Now one can farther argue that homosexuality is something that one is born with, or that something that one chooses at what ever point in their life time. However, I do not see how this matters at all, to shun and disregard a person no matter if it's their choice or nature is morally wrong.
One must also keep something else in mind. Just because a person is homosexual, does not mean that they are going to run around raping and kissing every other member of the same sex as them. Homosexuality simply means that they are attracted to the same gender and not the opposite. I personally am not attracted to every single girl I meet, I may never be attracted to any one I do meet and if I am attracted to one, it is simply that one and not all. The same applies to homosexuals, just for the same gender.
Now back the previous point, we must accept all, Assuming that their choice or nature does not necessarily hurt someone (such as someone choosing to be a murderer), we must still learn to respect each others choices. And we must not let our social interactions get in the way of what we make of ourselves
You are who you are my friends, do not change yourself to fit in better socially or anything, humans are created with natural instincts, we naturally gravitate towards those who would best suit our own personality, those who would have best increased both our chances of survival in the vast African savanna. it is not something that we should force and change so that we ourselves may fit in. This is also not something that any homosexual person should need to lie or try to change about them selves.
Live your life my friends, die with your own personality, and not someone elses.
Friday, October 15, 2010
And he remembers his very own origins
This blog post is a tad bit late, as I have been slightly busy these days with a continuous and tedious routine.
Last Thursday (Thursday October 7th 2010) [for future reference] was the day that I became a Canadian.
Last Thursday, that was the day that I held up my hand to be bond in a way more than one to a new country through nothing but words.
Last Thursday was when I took the citizenship oath, and sang Oh Canada for the first time as a Canadian.
I am now proud to be Canadian, I am lucky to have been born into a family capable of bringing me to the land of opportunities as it once was. To me, a growing teenager in the midst of his teenage angst, Canada really seems like the perfect place for me to be. It's a place where I am accepted, where no real racism is dominant and a place where I can easily secure a foothold for my future.
Canada is, for now at least where I feel I belong. But How did I get here?
I was born at ~4:45AM on Thursday, 24th January of 1994. The same day on which Caligula was assassinated by his guards back in 41 BC. A birthday that I share with Mr. John Myung from Dream Theater.
I was born in just an ordinary hospital on the skirts of Lahore, Pakistan, my native country.
As a youngster, I had an unimaginable amount of patriotism for my country. I had immense pride in being a Pakistani. To me, it was the greatest. Every thing Pakistani was the way to go. I loved the Cricket team, I loved the food (still do), I loved the National Anthem, the flag, the military, the Himalayan mountain range, the people, every single aspect of the country was something I adored. I refused to ever believe that my beloved country could commit any thing evil or be considered evil in any way.
Was I blinded by patriotism? Yes. But was I happy? Definitely.
I have always been a proud Pakistani, until recently. Recently I have begun to see the corrupt government, the infrastructure failures, deathly poverty and worst, the failures of our Cricket team! :( I can honestly say, that just a few months ago I was embarrassed to an extent to be Pakistani. I felt like my country had created a bad name for it self, and that some how I was partially responsible too.
But there are certain aspects of life that are un negotiable, as Bruce Dickinson put it. One of these, is your origin
One must never forget where he or she comes from, his true origins. This accounts for everything in life, I will never forget my origins of guitar playing that date back to simply watching one video of Randy Rhoads playing and being inspired. So too, will I never forget the real origins of my birth, of my existence.
I have re developed the pride I once had in Pakistan. I can appreciate all the good things, and I can appreciate the many ways in which to improve the country. I will always cheer for the Pakistani cricket team. Why?
Because my friends, I am still a Pakistani. There are certain bonds that fate will put on you the moment you are born, bonds that you have no power to change, bonds such as your nationality, your parents, siblings, your very genetic material, appearance and the such. This is one of them, I will always be a Pakistani.
Yet I have now become a Canadian. I am also a Canadian and there is no other way to put it. I am Canadian, that is from Pakistan. And I am proud of it.
The whole point of this post my friends, is to explain the importance of your origins.
Any thing you do in life, remember why you do it, what caused you to do and revisit often, it will often help you see how far you have come and the such.
Other than that, never be embarrassed by your nationality or any thing. Do not try to hide away behind another culture, rather embrace your own, believe in it for your culture is your origin. Times, place and people will change, but what was never will and so, remember that every thing that happened in the past has brought you to what you are right now. Every small aspect of your life has created the whole. The small things that change our life, never forget those. Never forget what they do for you. Never forget how every thing started, never ever forget your origins.
Last Thursday (Thursday October 7th 2010) [for future reference] was the day that I became a Canadian.
Last Thursday, that was the day that I held up my hand to be bond in a way more than one to a new country through nothing but words.
Last Thursday was when I took the citizenship oath, and sang Oh Canada for the first time as a Canadian.
I am now proud to be Canadian, I am lucky to have been born into a family capable of bringing me to the land of opportunities as it once was. To me, a growing teenager in the midst of his teenage angst, Canada really seems like the perfect place for me to be. It's a place where I am accepted, where no real racism is dominant and a place where I can easily secure a foothold for my future.
Canada is, for now at least where I feel I belong. But How did I get here?
I was born at ~4:45AM on Thursday, 24th January of 1994. The same day on which Caligula was assassinated by his guards back in 41 BC. A birthday that I share with Mr. John Myung from Dream Theater.
I was born in just an ordinary hospital on the skirts of Lahore, Pakistan, my native country.
As a youngster, I had an unimaginable amount of patriotism for my country. I had immense pride in being a Pakistani. To me, it was the greatest. Every thing Pakistani was the way to go. I loved the Cricket team, I loved the food (still do), I loved the National Anthem, the flag, the military, the Himalayan mountain range, the people, every single aspect of the country was something I adored. I refused to ever believe that my beloved country could commit any thing evil or be considered evil in any way.
Was I blinded by patriotism? Yes. But was I happy? Definitely.
I have always been a proud Pakistani, until recently. Recently I have begun to see the corrupt government, the infrastructure failures, deathly poverty and worst, the failures of our Cricket team! :( I can honestly say, that just a few months ago I was embarrassed to an extent to be Pakistani. I felt like my country had created a bad name for it self, and that some how I was partially responsible too.
But there are certain aspects of life that are un negotiable, as Bruce Dickinson put it. One of these, is your origin
One must never forget where he or she comes from, his true origins. This accounts for everything in life, I will never forget my origins of guitar playing that date back to simply watching one video of Randy Rhoads playing and being inspired. So too, will I never forget the real origins of my birth, of my existence.
I have re developed the pride I once had in Pakistan. I can appreciate all the good things, and I can appreciate the many ways in which to improve the country. I will always cheer for the Pakistani cricket team. Why?
Because my friends, I am still a Pakistani. There are certain bonds that fate will put on you the moment you are born, bonds that you have no power to change, bonds such as your nationality, your parents, siblings, your very genetic material, appearance and the such. This is one of them, I will always be a Pakistani.
Yet I have now become a Canadian. I am also a Canadian and there is no other way to put it. I am Canadian, that is from Pakistan. And I am proud of it.
The whole point of this post my friends, is to explain the importance of your origins.
Any thing you do in life, remember why you do it, what caused you to do and revisit often, it will often help you see how far you have come and the such.
Other than that, never be embarrassed by your nationality or any thing. Do not try to hide away behind another culture, rather embrace your own, believe in it for your culture is your origin. Times, place and people will change, but what was never will and so, remember that every thing that happened in the past has brought you to what you are right now. Every small aspect of your life has created the whole. The small things that change our life, never forget those. Never forget what they do for you. Never forget how every thing started, never ever forget your origins.
Friday, October 1, 2010
And he reflects on the futility of his existence
I had a bit of a revelation the other day while doing my homework. It's something I really felt I had to write about. I suppose the repetition in the post kind of serves the purpose and meaning behind it pretty well.
This post is very emotional to me, I cannot put all of it into words, and I think I've done a pretty bad job of what I did put into words. Some day I'll use music for it.
But this also serves as a warning, please do not let this post ruin your day.
Allow me to give a quick synopsis of my everyday these days.
Every day I wake up in the same fashion in the morning at 7:25ish due to the calamity caused by my brother and my mother. Every day I say good bye to my mother as she goes off to college and prepare my own breakfast. Every day I take out my MP3 player, turn on the alarm of the house, lock the door and walk to school.
I reach school, every day I sit through accounting, composing in my head or day dreaming about places, people or ideas. I uninterestedly copy my notes and do the home work, only half my mind. Every day, I leave my accounting class hoping to run into certain friends so I can greet them a good morning. Every day I enter my chemistry class and take the notes. I see my pen against the white of the paper from the same perspective every day, the motions in my hand are the same, even the words are often the same.
Every day I go and eat lunch with my friends, every day I remember what was, I remember what I wish was and I dream more. After lunch, every day I walk to my math class with a sense of excitement, excitement of seeing a friend. Every day I leave math in a negative air, feeling like a failure for not being able to summon the required courage to talk to my friend and not completely understanding the math as well as I should. Every day I walk in silence with my friend up to my Biology class, every day I sit in my seat and dream more, about places, people and ideas. Every day, I leave my class and attend what ever club to attend before walking home listening to more music. The scene is always the same, with the constant collage of colour moving on my right and the houses on the left.
Every day I reach home and relax for a few minutes, every day I reply to any Facebook updates or forumn threads. Every day I check Cracked and Reddit, try to find some new music. Every day I pull out my Math binder and start my math home work. Every day I put away my math homework and do what ever other work needs to be done. Every day I realize how late it is and go to complete my appropriate work out. Every day after wards, I look at my guitar case with a longing deep within of the want to take it out and play before looking at the time, showering and then sleeping.
When the weekend comes, every day I repeat my motions and try to find time to relax, but find instead nothing to do with time. Every day I await with dread the day of school that comes so fast.
Every day, I repeat my motions. I try without fruit to find a purpose. What do I do this for my friends? Why do I constantly starve my heart for the greater good of my mind? So that I can receive an education.
Why do I want an education? So that I can attend university, graduate, settle in with possibly a family and get a job. Why do I then spend the rest of my life in a constant cycle of work and sleep? So that I can support myself/my family and retire in peace with a good pension plan
What do I do when I am retired? I lie in my chair thinking about how I am too old to be doing anything adventurous. I some day die. My futile life behind me.
Why do we exist my friends? Why do we get our turn to land on Earth to live in a continuous cycle of movements, a continuous endless motion. From birth to death. Why do we repeat the same motions lived by our parents and their parents and their parents before them with barely any variation often?
This is a cycle that I know does not exist only now. It is a cycle that started started from the moment we are born, that goes through different phases. Is our purpose in life simply to experience these phases for our self? Why? When the billions of humanity that came before so too did experience?
Of course there are always variations, the life cycle of one born in North America will differ from he born in Poverty in a mountain region of Tibet. But the point stands that we live this life in a continuous cycle.
What different is there between yesterday and today? When they will both be nothing but a memory tomorrow? A memory un remembered, for yesterday and today were both the same in so many ways and so the same as tomorrow.
Why do we exist like this my friends? Is it so that we may create a new stepping stone and farther reach out from what the generations have done before us? So that we can create a new platform for our children to work on? So that they can learn new things. Why do they learn new things? So that their children can learn new things, and so the cycle will go on until the end of eternity. For this is our life. This is apparently our purpose.
I suppose this all means that it's the little things in life that matter, one learns to appreciate all the little tad bits that happen on a day to day to basis, the things in between the routine.
But look at the big picture my friends, we live a futile life. There is no purpose for our existence. We will pass on our genes, so that our children may pass them on and so on, but what is there to this? When our parents too existed purely to pass on their genes to us? What is there to this endless cycle?
Alas it is, that this revelation has occurred to me. Alas it is, that realize I live for no reason.
But is this any reason for me to go and commit suicide? No, then I would simply die for no reason. I am here, there is no reasoning behind my existence, but I am here. While I am here, I shall try to make the best of my life, I shall try my hardest to create my own cycle that is unique by a greater factor to those of people around me and I urge my friends to do so as well. I shall try to create my own mark before I fade away with the sands of time.
This post is very emotional to me, I cannot put all of it into words, and I think I've done a pretty bad job of what I did put into words. Some day I'll use music for it.
But this also serves as a warning, please do not let this post ruin your day.
Allow me to give a quick synopsis of my everyday these days.
Every day I wake up in the same fashion in the morning at 7:25ish due to the calamity caused by my brother and my mother. Every day I say good bye to my mother as she goes off to college and prepare my own breakfast. Every day I take out my MP3 player, turn on the alarm of the house, lock the door and walk to school.
I reach school, every day I sit through accounting, composing in my head or day dreaming about places, people or ideas. I uninterestedly copy my notes and do the home work, only half my mind. Every day, I leave my accounting class hoping to run into certain friends so I can greet them a good morning. Every day I enter my chemistry class and take the notes. I see my pen against the white of the paper from the same perspective every day, the motions in my hand are the same, even the words are often the same.
Every day I go and eat lunch with my friends, every day I remember what was, I remember what I wish was and I dream more. After lunch, every day I walk to my math class with a sense of excitement, excitement of seeing a friend. Every day I leave math in a negative air, feeling like a failure for not being able to summon the required courage to talk to my friend and not completely understanding the math as well as I should. Every day I walk in silence with my friend up to my Biology class, every day I sit in my seat and dream more, about places, people and ideas. Every day, I leave my class and attend what ever club to attend before walking home listening to more music. The scene is always the same, with the constant collage of colour moving on my right and the houses on the left.
Every day I reach home and relax for a few minutes, every day I reply to any Facebook updates or forumn threads. Every day I check Cracked and Reddit, try to find some new music. Every day I pull out my Math binder and start my math home work. Every day I put away my math homework and do what ever other work needs to be done. Every day I realize how late it is and go to complete my appropriate work out. Every day after wards, I look at my guitar case with a longing deep within of the want to take it out and play before looking at the time, showering and then sleeping.
When the weekend comes, every day I repeat my motions and try to find time to relax, but find instead nothing to do with time. Every day I await with dread the day of school that comes so fast.
Every day, I repeat my motions. I try without fruit to find a purpose. What do I do this for my friends? Why do I constantly starve my heart for the greater good of my mind? So that I can receive an education.
Why do I want an education? So that I can attend university, graduate, settle in with possibly a family and get a job. Why do I then spend the rest of my life in a constant cycle of work and sleep? So that I can support myself/my family and retire in peace with a good pension plan
What do I do when I am retired? I lie in my chair thinking about how I am too old to be doing anything adventurous. I some day die. My futile life behind me.
Why do we exist my friends? Why do we get our turn to land on Earth to live in a continuous cycle of movements, a continuous endless motion. From birth to death. Why do we repeat the same motions lived by our parents and their parents and their parents before them with barely any variation often?
This is a cycle that I know does not exist only now. It is a cycle that started started from the moment we are born, that goes through different phases. Is our purpose in life simply to experience these phases for our self? Why? When the billions of humanity that came before so too did experience?
Of course there are always variations, the life cycle of one born in North America will differ from he born in Poverty in a mountain region of Tibet. But the point stands that we live this life in a continuous cycle.
What different is there between yesterday and today? When they will both be nothing but a memory tomorrow? A memory un remembered, for yesterday and today were both the same in so many ways and so the same as tomorrow.
Why do we exist like this my friends? Is it so that we may create a new stepping stone and farther reach out from what the generations have done before us? So that we can create a new platform for our children to work on? So that they can learn new things. Why do they learn new things? So that their children can learn new things, and so the cycle will go on until the end of eternity. For this is our life. This is apparently our purpose.
I suppose this all means that it's the little things in life that matter, one learns to appreciate all the little tad bits that happen on a day to day to basis, the things in between the routine.
But look at the big picture my friends, we live a futile life. There is no purpose for our existence. We will pass on our genes, so that our children may pass them on and so on, but what is there to this? When our parents too existed purely to pass on their genes to us? What is there to this endless cycle?
Alas it is, that this revelation has occurred to me. Alas it is, that realize I live for no reason.
But is this any reason for me to go and commit suicide? No, then I would simply die for no reason. I am here, there is no reasoning behind my existence, but I am here. While I am here, I shall try to make the best of my life, I shall try my hardest to create my own cycle that is unique by a greater factor to those of people around me and I urge my friends to do so as well. I shall try to create my own mark before I fade away with the sands of time.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
As he bids farewell to his father and remembers the journey to a new continent
Today was the day that my father once again left us after staying for about 29 days, a relatively long stay as he usually stays for maybe 3 weeks.
Bit of a back story I suppose, but here goes.
I believe it was back near the end of 2000 or some way through 2001 that we moved from the country of Turkey to a small country called Qatar in the Middle East. (More on that some other day I suppose)
We lived in that incredibly hot country for about 5 years. It was probably a relatively dark time, I was very much shunned as that country did certainly seem to be overly religious and also very racist towards me. Either way, I had a good group of close friends and I was definitely sad when it was time to leave.
My dad had a really good position with this company called AES, he was managing a power plant and every day he drove about 45 minutes to get to it. (Not significant, but in that small country, he literally went from one side of it to the other) For a good 5 years, my father lived with us in a house. The whole family was together back then, and times were good. Our cousins also lived there and we had a large group of family friends.
And then a point came, where my dads company wanted to reposition him to Nigeria, where they were attempting to open a new plant and needed some big hands on it and so on. My dad really liked his position, and didn't want to lose his spot in the company. But at the same time, he didn't want us "growing up in Nigeria," he was hoping for a better education for it.
So he did something that I've always admired him for having the courage to do and that is, send us to Canada (where his brother, my uncle lives) and go him self to work in Nigeria. It is here that I Have started my own new life, where I have met friends and done things I would never have previously thought possible. It is here that I have grown to be what I am today.
We arrived in Canada on December 21st 2005, I remember that I actually liked the fact that we got "Pizza" on the plane, and at that point there were TVs for every chair and such. None the less, a long flight is one to always make me exceptionally dizzy and motion sick.
Getting off the plane, the first thing I really noticed were all the signs in a strange language which would be French. When we left the air port, it was snowing and there I was in light sweater or what ever with my bag full of summer clothes from a hot country. we met our uncle then and lived with him in Missisauga for a while. At some point, we rented another apartment in Missisauga and started attending school over there. My parents went house seeking and eventually only found a house they liked enough here in Richmond Hill.
My dad of course, always has grand plans and his plan was to buy a house here and some day he'll retire or try to find different work in Canada. So that's what we did. None the less, for a few years it has been him working over seas and visiting us ever so often. Maybe every 3 or 4 months for a few weeks.
I've actually been to Nigeria to visit him as well, and that was a bit of an adventure because that of course is where I got my HATTY, and where we went on a Safari and various other stuff.
Either way, it was a very very personal thing for me to see the conditions of a country struck so deep by poverty and corruption, I was followed by guilt for living a good life around the general population there. I think it was a very humbling experience for the younger me :)
Back to topic, my father constantly worked hard and then he would visit for happy times. This continued for maybe 3 or 4 years and eventually my father moved with his company to South Africa where he stayed for a few months. Since then, my father has left AES and is now working in a different company. He left it because his friend was doing something in Pakistan and he wanted to work in his rightful home for a few years.
So today is a bit of a silent day in my house, my brother is off to university and my dad is off to another continent. My little brother of course never actually gets off his computer and my mom is sad. I think apart from my dad, it has the biggest toll on her, which I guess would be obvious.
Being at this stage of your life without your father is always a very limiting experience, there are things I wish he could teach me, or talk that I wish we could share. Of course, what it really does is make me appreciate him that much more. I realize just what it means to have a father and this makes me truly feel for those who aren't as fortunate.
I can't say my situation is too bad, it isn't. Many have it so much worse. But the fact remains that I miss my daddy ever so dearly. With my father not here, I feel a lot of more responsibility on my shoulders, as if I am really the man on the house. This was always true, as my older brother is a bit of a dunderhead and not attentive enough to do anything. Now however, that he is gone I feel this burden weigh ever more heavily on my shoulders.
But we live on, let me tell any one who actually reads this, love your parents. Appreciate the hard work your fathers put in for you and the burden your mothers bear.
Bit of a back story I suppose, but here goes.
I believe it was back near the end of 2000 or some way through 2001 that we moved from the country of Turkey to a small country called Qatar in the Middle East. (More on that some other day I suppose)
We lived in that incredibly hot country for about 5 years. It was probably a relatively dark time, I was very much shunned as that country did certainly seem to be overly religious and also very racist towards me. Either way, I had a good group of close friends and I was definitely sad when it was time to leave.
My dad had a really good position with this company called AES, he was managing a power plant and every day he drove about 45 minutes to get to it. (Not significant, but in that small country, he literally went from one side of it to the other) For a good 5 years, my father lived with us in a house. The whole family was together back then, and times were good. Our cousins also lived there and we had a large group of family friends.
And then a point came, where my dads company wanted to reposition him to Nigeria, where they were attempting to open a new plant and needed some big hands on it and so on. My dad really liked his position, and didn't want to lose his spot in the company. But at the same time, he didn't want us "growing up in Nigeria," he was hoping for a better education for it.
So he did something that I've always admired him for having the courage to do and that is, send us to Canada (where his brother, my uncle lives) and go him self to work in Nigeria. It is here that I Have started my own new life, where I have met friends and done things I would never have previously thought possible. It is here that I have grown to be what I am today.
We arrived in Canada on December 21st 2005, I remember that I actually liked the fact that we got "Pizza" on the plane, and at that point there were TVs for every chair and such. None the less, a long flight is one to always make me exceptionally dizzy and motion sick.
Getting off the plane, the first thing I really noticed were all the signs in a strange language which would be French. When we left the air port, it was snowing and there I was in light sweater or what ever with my bag full of summer clothes from a hot country. we met our uncle then and lived with him in Missisauga for a while. At some point, we rented another apartment in Missisauga and started attending school over there. My parents went house seeking and eventually only found a house they liked enough here in Richmond Hill.
My dad of course, always has grand plans and his plan was to buy a house here and some day he'll retire or try to find different work in Canada. So that's what we did. None the less, for a few years it has been him working over seas and visiting us ever so often. Maybe every 3 or 4 months for a few weeks.
I've actually been to Nigeria to visit him as well, and that was a bit of an adventure because that of course is where I got my HATTY, and where we went on a Safari and various other stuff.
Either way, it was a very very personal thing for me to see the conditions of a country struck so deep by poverty and corruption, I was followed by guilt for living a good life around the general population there. I think it was a very humbling experience for the younger me :)
Back to topic, my father constantly worked hard and then he would visit for happy times. This continued for maybe 3 or 4 years and eventually my father moved with his company to South Africa where he stayed for a few months. Since then, my father has left AES and is now working in a different company. He left it because his friend was doing something in Pakistan and he wanted to work in his rightful home for a few years.
So today is a bit of a silent day in my house, my brother is off to university and my dad is off to another continent. My little brother of course never actually gets off his computer and my mom is sad. I think apart from my dad, it has the biggest toll on her, which I guess would be obvious.
Being at this stage of your life without your father is always a very limiting experience, there are things I wish he could teach me, or talk that I wish we could share. Of course, what it really does is make me appreciate him that much more. I realize just what it means to have a father and this makes me truly feel for those who aren't as fortunate.
I can't say my situation is too bad, it isn't. Many have it so much worse. But the fact remains that I miss my daddy ever so dearly. With my father not here, I feel a lot of more responsibility on my shoulders, as if I am really the man on the house. This was always true, as my older brother is a bit of a dunderhead and not attentive enough to do anything. Now however, that he is gone I feel this burden weigh ever more heavily on my shoulders.
But we live on, let me tell any one who actually reads this, love your parents. Appreciate the hard work your fathers put in for you and the burden your mothers bear.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
And he dreams of an eternal life
Can you imagine a life that would never end? One where you could experience everything that is to happen on Earth, where you could witness the very history of a planet and universe that is still in the making. A life where you could gain more knowledge than is humanly imaginable, that would be an eternal life.
Wouldn't it be absolutely horrible? I'm sure that most people agree that they don't want to be immortal, at least once you have matured enough to a point. Immortality would cause you to live your life in a continuous cycle, you would watch every thing and every one you love pass, eventually, there really would be no meaning to life. It is the fact and belief that life is short that inspires men to do great things. Can you imagine being the last human alive? (I'm assuming immortality means you can't die no matter what happens to you)
I can't even begin to describe how horrible it would be, to me the life span of a healthy human is pretty ideal, one wouldn't really want to live too long past a good age anyways, there isn't much to do and eventually you must fulfill your role in the cycle of life and that is dying.
Note: Imagine being immortal and while immortal, you're caught in an Earthquake or something and suddenly you're trapped under a ton of debris. Of course the rescue workers give up on any survivors and there you are, for eternity, trapped in a little space D:
Despite all this, I dream of living on in the lives and times of others, to exist and not be forgotten for as long as man kind is not forgotten. Being forgotten is my biggest fear, often my worst nightmare is lying in my death bed, with no visitors or anyone.
I do dream of an eternal life, an eternal life where the accomplishments I accomplish in my life will live on into the lives of others. Into the lives of human beings living a few hundred years into the future, this is my dream. To exist and be remembered long after my time has passed. That, my friends, will be how I attempt to gain immortality.
Is it not the ideal thing? to accomplish much in your life, to be rewarded and loved for your accomplishments in a time that does not belong to your generation? To continue on where most men stop? To continue your journey, without the burden of being alive to experience it?
There are ways to do this, I could live on through my creations, where the innovations and creativity that I instill would be remembered and improved upon in the future, to have a new standard for things. Allow me to give examples: Beethoven is remembered through the grandness of his great Symphonies and expression in his music, he changed how music was written after him, if it wasn't for Beethoven, the music in our lives would be so very different. Another example, Michaelangelo is remembered through the pieces of art he created, the innovations and greatness of his works such as "David" are remembered today and will be in the future
Another way of course, would be to do great things in life, save lives and the such. To be remembered for your good deeds and goodness of heart like Florence Nightingale, or create something that will set a basis for all in the future to work on such as Louis Pasteur.
Of course, there are all kinds of ways to be remembered. If you truly accomplish something amazing, you can be remembered for all of human life, an example would be the great Pharoahs or the greek scholars.
This is my dream my friends, a dream which I suppose is more likely to not be accomplished, but it is a dream that I will strive for in life. I will make my life the best I can by seeking to extend it into the lives of our children's children. I also believe that one must do great things for the sake of goodness, for helping humanity. I know that only if I succeed in my goal with good intentions that are right, then I will be remembered and that is my dream. To earn immortality through actually doing something good in life, not just immortality but actually earning it, living my life to it's fullest and then continuing that into another life.
I dream of the day when I gain my immortality.
Wouldn't it be absolutely horrible? I'm sure that most people agree that they don't want to be immortal, at least once you have matured enough to a point. Immortality would cause you to live your life in a continuous cycle, you would watch every thing and every one you love pass, eventually, there really would be no meaning to life. It is the fact and belief that life is short that inspires men to do great things. Can you imagine being the last human alive? (I'm assuming immortality means you can't die no matter what happens to you)
I can't even begin to describe how horrible it would be, to me the life span of a healthy human is pretty ideal, one wouldn't really want to live too long past a good age anyways, there isn't much to do and eventually you must fulfill your role in the cycle of life and that is dying.
Note: Imagine being immortal and while immortal, you're caught in an Earthquake or something and suddenly you're trapped under a ton of debris. Of course the rescue workers give up on any survivors and there you are, for eternity, trapped in a little space D:
Despite all this, I dream of living on in the lives and times of others, to exist and not be forgotten for as long as man kind is not forgotten. Being forgotten is my biggest fear, often my worst nightmare is lying in my death bed, with no visitors or anyone.
I do dream of an eternal life, an eternal life where the accomplishments I accomplish in my life will live on into the lives of others. Into the lives of human beings living a few hundred years into the future, this is my dream. To exist and be remembered long after my time has passed. That, my friends, will be how I attempt to gain immortality.
Is it not the ideal thing? to accomplish much in your life, to be rewarded and loved for your accomplishments in a time that does not belong to your generation? To continue on where most men stop? To continue your journey, without the burden of being alive to experience it?
There are ways to do this, I could live on through my creations, where the innovations and creativity that I instill would be remembered and improved upon in the future, to have a new standard for things. Allow me to give examples: Beethoven is remembered through the grandness of his great Symphonies and expression in his music, he changed how music was written after him, if it wasn't for Beethoven, the music in our lives would be so very different. Another example, Michaelangelo is remembered through the pieces of art he created, the innovations and greatness of his works such as "David" are remembered today and will be in the future
Another way of course, would be to do great things in life, save lives and the such. To be remembered for your good deeds and goodness of heart like Florence Nightingale, or create something that will set a basis for all in the future to work on such as Louis Pasteur.
Of course, there are all kinds of ways to be remembered. If you truly accomplish something amazing, you can be remembered for all of human life, an example would be the great Pharoahs or the greek scholars.
This is my dream my friends, a dream which I suppose is more likely to not be accomplished, but it is a dream that I will strive for in life. I will make my life the best I can by seeking to extend it into the lives of our children's children. I also believe that one must do great things for the sake of goodness, for helping humanity. I know that only if I succeed in my goal with good intentions that are right, then I will be remembered and that is my dream. To earn immortality through actually doing something good in life, not just immortality but actually earning it, living my life to it's fullest and then continuing that into another life.
I dream of the day when I gain my immortality.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
And he remembers that fateful evening
The memory is still vivid in my mind, we had just recently moved to Doha in Qatar, and we were living in a guest house with various other people from my dads work. I came home from I think school and walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was the absolute silence, it was the TV room, with the TV on my right and all the adults were sitting on the couch. As I turned to the TV in question, I saw a burning building and did not at first realize its full significance.
I was a confused young lad, but a quick explanation from my dad cleared things up. I remember shock, disbelief, excitement and lots of confusion. I asked my self why any one would want to kill them selves in such a scary way. I admit though, I think I was a little bit excited about the concept of America being under attack, alas I was a young lad and young lads are easily excitable by war and the such that doesn't involve them. What really bothered me at the time, was that they attacked the tallest building in the world, so now it wasn't the tallest any more. My young mind failed to realize the innocent lives that were lost in the incident.
But as I grow older, I continue to realize the complete significance of this event. 9/11 was the turning point of the millennium, it was like an omen for this new millennium; a bad start. It is what set the foundations for everything that has happened in the 9 years since the incident. Just imagine, if all that money spent hunting terrorists had been invested in AIDS research or world hunger? Imagine if all those millions effected by the after shock of the event; being the whole population of Afghanistan and every Muslim on the planet as well as the families of those lost in the tragedy, were not effected? Imagine all the dreams that were broken. the dreams for a better world which could have been fulfilled. Imagine all the great people who were prevented from obtaining their rightful jobs or positions due to the event, imagine what they could have done. Of course I'm actually seeking some of the smaller less obvious points here but as we all know how significant this event really is. I can really go on about this, but I don't see any point in doing so.
There were a few positive things that came out of the event, we are now safer than ever from terrorism and I'm pretty sure they added safety features in skyscrapers amongst other things.
That being said, we cannot undermine the killing of ~3'000 innocent people. Today, it does not matter who did it, or why they did it or even how. Today, it is these lives that we remember, lives that were simply going off on an ordinary day of work to never return again. Normally I would say that we all die at some point in life, and it is fates decision to choose when. However, just imagine what a cruel and horrible way to die that really is.
Without undermining all this however, let's talk about what has become of the world. I find the way that the Americans have started to justify this has really come out of hand. A prime example would be the Community center that a group of Muslims were trying to build close to "ground zero" Which actually wasn't really that close. Now obviously I know that this was over hyped by the media who obviously wanted to hide some other important thing. However, it is really the reaction that gets to me.
Relatives of those who perished in the event I think for the most part don't mind it so much. They understand that their loved ones did not die to be used as an excuse to limit others from their religion or culture. It is those Americans who live far, mainly not even in the city who are creating the uproar. It really is more of a psychological reasonings, were the media presents a single point in a specific way to make it more of a fact than an opinion.
I supported the building of the community center, not as a Muslim but as a human being. I know that to the Muslim community of New York, this center would serve a grim reminder of events passed, of events that they are then thought to never allow to happen again. I realize that I don't actually live in New York, but neither do most of the critics. This is where they say to me, "But you don't live in America, you don't understand the pride we have in our nation"
But then I ask you my friends, how can you have such a large amount of pride in your nation, but have no faith in your fellow Americans? Americans that are no different than you in the pride of their nation, but only different in the religion they follow.
What I believe 9/11 really did to destroy this decade, and the next few, was dash all hopes of peace. Things were finally looking up, sure, there were many civil wars around the world, and sure there was still USA in Iraq, but it all seemed like it could be ended. And then terrorism struck and it succeeded in its true goal; to strike terror into the hearts of people. Doing so, it ensured a never ending war, because my friends, terrorism can never be ended unless you get over the fear of it. It is only when a terrorist sees that his plan would not have the desired impact, or a suicide bomber realizes that his life will be lost in vain that it will stop.
Another interesting thing I would like to note, is the worlds reaction to this event. I realize it was a tragedy, but I honestly doubt the reaction would be so big if it wasn't the United States that were attacked. I guess some sort of an example would be the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A marginally larger number of innocent people perished in those bombings, and to me, they were terrorism at its worst. The whole purpose of the bombings was to display a new weapon, to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, to force them to surrender by scaring their people. The bombs were used on completely innocent cities, cities that were not directly involved in the war, but rather were simply a location for the population to live their lives. Now I can go on, but the point is that while the world reacted to this in one way, it was not nearly as decade changing as the relatively speaking, smaller attacks on the World Trade Center.
Why is that? Is it because this was the year 2001 and that was 1945? Is it because "alls fair in love and war?" Or is it because it was the powerhouse of the world; the United States of America that no one dares stand against that was attacked?
(p.s. this post was mainly written on 9/11/10, but I wasn't able to publish it until the 12th)
Friday, September 10, 2010
He continues his pursuit of knowledge
Grade 11, hard to believe but here I stand, I can't say that I finally made it, because I didn't. I am simply on another stepping stone of a long journey, a life long journey that will never be complete; the pursuit of knowledge.
Knowledge is one of the few things in life that I seek absolutely, that I seek to no end. It is the same with many people around the world, to me it isn't about being successful as much as it is for the sense of fulfillment and peace of mind one enters0 when obtaining knowledge. It is a funny thing, knowledge; no matter how much you learn, you will always know so little. But alas, that is the way of life.
And so it is, that I am in grade. 11. I can't say much about the year, after all it only started around 3 days ago and I already got to skip a day (today for eid) On top of that, my schedule is very very messed up. Observe the fact that I do indeed have 2 spares which isn't as bad as many, but worse than most. This means that I can't really say I have the current courses permanently as they are very much due to change. And that, is a real bummer because of how much I love my math class =[ Either way, I guess I wait and see.
I actually kind of designed this year to be a test run to see which subjects I'm more likely to go into when going into university, between Business and Sciences. (More on my future aspirations in another blog post) I hope that I am still able to obtain the necessary courses for my test run to be successful, and also the necessary ones to ensure that I am able to get the Business endorsement. If not, one may be expecting another blog post with a nice long rant about the guidance department. :)
Moreover, on the topic of time, it passes by a bit too speedily and almost every body agrees with me here. It is not an opinion but rather a fact, I was thinking to my self about how Dance of Death (released in 2003) was released 7 years ago, that's mind blowing, 2003, 7 years? 2003 is meant to be "last year" What is going on here my friends? Why does time mock us; encase us in it's seductive charms before spindling away without a trace and naught to re live it by but in a memory? And is it not somewhat ironic that the preservation of time in memories is just another on the list of things that time decays?
I will miss the days of my life so far, they have been the best of times for me. The only thing I can do about it, is set an expectation and continue to create great experiences. I must cherish every moment of the present without worry of the future or the pains of the past in my side.
I must live for the moment, or else not live at all.
Knowledge is one of the few things in life that I seek absolutely, that I seek to no end. It is the same with many people around the world, to me it isn't about being successful as much as it is for the sense of fulfillment and peace of mind one enters0 when obtaining knowledge. It is a funny thing, knowledge; no matter how much you learn, you will always know so little. But alas, that is the way of life.
And so it is, that I am in grade. 11. I can't say much about the year, after all it only started around 3 days ago and I already got to skip a day (today for eid) On top of that, my schedule is very very messed up. Observe the fact that I do indeed have 2 spares which isn't as bad as many, but worse than most. This means that I can't really say I have the current courses permanently as they are very much due to change. And that, is a real bummer because of how much I love my math class =[ Either way, I guess I wait and see.
I actually kind of designed this year to be a test run to see which subjects I'm more likely to go into when going into university, between Business and Sciences. (More on my future aspirations in another blog post) I hope that I am still able to obtain the necessary courses for my test run to be successful, and also the necessary ones to ensure that I am able to get the Business endorsement. If not, one may be expecting another blog post with a nice long rant about the guidance department. :)
Moreover, on the topic of time, it passes by a bit too speedily and almost every body agrees with me here. It is not an opinion but rather a fact, I was thinking to my self about how Dance of Death (released in 2003) was released 7 years ago, that's mind blowing, 2003, 7 years? 2003 is meant to be "last year" What is going on here my friends? Why does time mock us; encase us in it's seductive charms before spindling away without a trace and naught to re live it by but in a memory? And is it not somewhat ironic that the preservation of time in memories is just another on the list of things that time decays?
I will miss the days of my life so far, they have been the best of times for me. The only thing I can do about it, is set an expectation and continue to create great experiences. I must cherish every moment of the present without worry of the future or the pains of the past in my side.
I must live for the moment, or else not live at all.
A new era in his life
A few days ago, my brother left for the next stage in his journey; university. This single event has created a new section in the on going life of my family. Every day I watch my mother eat herself through worry and my dad glow in his personal pride. The house too feels exceptionally empty, and I can't even imagine what it will be like once my dad takes his leave back to Pakistan.
But how does it affect me? I suppose it is pretty significant. I've lived with my older brother my entire life, I really haven't known many days when we weren't in each other companies and there were periods of maybe a few weeks, but few of them. This in turn I suppose caused us to grow pretty close and know each other really well, and in turn gave us an ability to be really open minded with each other, to be able to talk about just about any thing. This isn't really a "guy" thing, so I guess my brother was more like my sister.
But as always, things are due to change and they do change. I feel stranger in my own home these days, I often find tad bits of scientific facts, or musical news or anything that I want to tell some body but I cannot, little pieces of information I would have told my brother. I find my self lacking someone to have an "intellectual" conversation with at home.
It's just one of those things to get used to I suppose, but it will be weird for a while, I don't really have as much of an outlet anymore so I'm guessing that this will cause me to start talking about stranger things more often with my friends, some thing I might want to avoid for want of mutual happiness.
So I didn't actually go to his university and drop him off, I guess it probably has something to do with the fact that I was fasting, it was a 3 hour car ride and it was around 5 in the morning and I really felt like sleeping. Of course, this isn't an excuse as I really didn't want to drop him off the night before, was I simply too lazy? or was I scared of saying the good byes? Probably neither, but who knows :)
Am I exaggerating in this post? Probably quite a bit. It's a deep thing I suppose, and pretty cheesy. My brother isn't meant to read this any ways, if he does every piece of information here becomes invalid.
I actually do have quite a bit of blogging to do to catch up, yesterday Christie sent me a quick mockery making fun of my lack of updating and then ran away before I was able to reply and now I must make up for it :D
But how does it affect me? I suppose it is pretty significant. I've lived with my older brother my entire life, I really haven't known many days when we weren't in each other companies and there were periods of maybe a few weeks, but few of them. This in turn I suppose caused us to grow pretty close and know each other really well, and in turn gave us an ability to be really open minded with each other, to be able to talk about just about any thing. This isn't really a "guy" thing, so I guess my brother was more like my sister.
But as always, things are due to change and they do change. I feel stranger in my own home these days, I often find tad bits of scientific facts, or musical news or anything that I want to tell some body but I cannot, little pieces of information I would have told my brother. I find my self lacking someone to have an "intellectual" conversation with at home.
It's just one of those things to get used to I suppose, but it will be weird for a while, I don't really have as much of an outlet anymore so I'm guessing that this will cause me to start talking about stranger things more often with my friends, some thing I might want to avoid for want of mutual happiness.
So I didn't actually go to his university and drop him off, I guess it probably has something to do with the fact that I was fasting, it was a 3 hour car ride and it was around 5 in the morning and I really felt like sleeping. Of course, this isn't an excuse as I really didn't want to drop him off the night before, was I simply too lazy? or was I scared of saying the good byes? Probably neither, but who knows :)
Am I exaggerating in this post? Probably quite a bit. It's a deep thing I suppose, and pretty cheesy. My brother isn't meant to read this any ways, if he does every piece of information here becomes invalid.
I actually do have quite a bit of blogging to do to catch up, yesterday Christie sent me a quick mockery making fun of my lack of updating and then ran away before I was able to reply and now I must make up for it :D
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
As he observes the decline of modern society
What has become of our society now days? There is so much wrong, like this horrible video I saw today of a girl throwing puppies into a river.
But I'm actually going to talk about something else here, and that is the inert laziness that is becoming so prevalent in our generation. Of course, there is the big picture, with every body sitting at their computer or watching their TV, playing their games the whole day. But let's take it in closer, the laziness within the laziness if you will.
How, can it be that we sit at our computers or what ever else, the whole day. we aren't always doing something productive, yet we can be so lazy on our computers them selves. All around me, I see people speaking in de-generated "lolspeak" or what ever you wish to call it, using words such as "da" and then replacing words with numbers, it's hard to explain but allow a demonstration:
"goin 2 da mall"
How can one be, so lazy that he is sitting lazily enough on his computer, but on top of that, he fails to speak in a civilized manner because he is simply "too lazy" to type of "too, the and going"
Ask someone to search something up on google, the reply is an omnious "too lazy"
What? Why? You're sitting there, it'll take you around 2 more calories to go and search it up on google, how can you be this lazy?
Another good enough example, is people failing to read posts, looking for "tl;dr" [Too lazy to just type "too long; didn't read," really?] I sincerely doubt anyone will actually read this post thoroughly due to being, too lazy. This, is the decline of our modern society in a very specific example.
I don't wish to criticize anyone in particular, I admit that I myself do this often, but I am not proud of it, which sadly many people seem to be.
There are also often exceptions, I understand that people say "lol" as opposed to "laughing out loud," as these phrases have come to have a different meaning, with "lol" being an acknowledgement of reading, "I have read your post and understand what is going on"
My friends, if any of you have had the mind and ability to read this post, then great! Please I ask you, look to yourselves, look to your friends and find your inner laziness, and solve it. Will it really kill you, to clarify, speak, write a few extra words, use up a few extra seconds which you would other wise waste doing absolutely nothing?
I believe strongly that our generation has every thing really, it has the extremes of every thing. We have access to the greatest technology mankind has ever possessed, yet we often forget and get lost in our social circles, we forget our basic human morals and give way to the inner instinct, is technology the cause? Is it the way we are grown up? or is it simply just a few bad people that ruining Zammars' day
But I'm actually going to talk about something else here, and that is the inert laziness that is becoming so prevalent in our generation. Of course, there is the big picture, with every body sitting at their computer or watching their TV, playing their games the whole day. But let's take it in closer, the laziness within the laziness if you will.
How, can it be that we sit at our computers or what ever else, the whole day. we aren't always doing something productive, yet we can be so lazy on our computers them selves. All around me, I see people speaking in de-generated "lolspeak" or what ever you wish to call it, using words such as "da" and then replacing words with numbers, it's hard to explain but allow a demonstration:
"goin 2 da mall"
How can one be, so lazy that he is sitting lazily enough on his computer, but on top of that, he fails to speak in a civilized manner because he is simply "too lazy" to type of "too, the and going"
Ask someone to search something up on google, the reply is an omnious "too lazy"
What? Why? You're sitting there, it'll take you around 2 more calories to go and search it up on google, how can you be this lazy?
Another good enough example, is people failing to read posts, looking for "tl;dr" [Too lazy to just type "too long; didn't read," really?] I sincerely doubt anyone will actually read this post thoroughly due to being, too lazy. This, is the decline of our modern society in a very specific example.
I don't wish to criticize anyone in particular, I admit that I myself do this often, but I am not proud of it, which sadly many people seem to be.
There are also often exceptions, I understand that people say "lol" as opposed to "laughing out loud," as these phrases have come to have a different meaning, with "lol" being an acknowledgement of reading, "I have read your post and understand what is going on"
My friends, if any of you have had the mind and ability to read this post, then great! Please I ask you, look to yourselves, look to your friends and find your inner laziness, and solve it. Will it really kill you, to clarify, speak, write a few extra words, use up a few extra seconds which you would other wise waste doing absolutely nothing?
I believe strongly that our generation has every thing really, it has the extremes of every thing. We have access to the greatest technology mankind has ever possessed, yet we often forget and get lost in our social circles, we forget our basic human morals and give way to the inner instinct, is technology the cause? Is it the way we are grown up? or is it simply just a few bad people that ruining Zammars' day
Thursday, August 26, 2010
The Final Frontier
So I haven't actually posted for like *counts* *Okay, too lazy to count,* a while now... But that is probably because I have been rather distracted with THE FINAL FRONTIER!!! IRON MAIDEN'S new album!!! HOOOOOOO \m/ x100'000'666'701
It was actually released on the 16th, but what I did...was that I preordered the LIMITED EDITION SUPER HOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME version, which Amazon decided to not deliver to me instantly, at first I figured I'd have to wait like 3 or 4 days and then rock out, but nooo, after like 3 amazingly painful days, I received an email which said that it won't be shipped until the 31st and alas the thought broke me down and I caved and illegally satisfied my ears :(
I was hoping to listen to it for the first time when I get the CD, but alas fate is cruel to me. Ah well, it was worth it anyways.
So This album is different, it's a lot more direct that some of Maidens other efforts and it's also very progressive but at the same time heavy and kindve straight forward, it's hard to describe but it's definitely very great to listen to. I think that for a lot of people it'll take some time to grow on them, since it's so dense but I loved it the moment I played it =S
I shall now go into my song by song detail :D
1. Satellite 15...The Final Frontier (8:41)
Okay, well this song is basically two songs which are lyrically linked and the same track, but they are very different. I heard the second part before the album was released, because it was pre released in a video and I always loved it. It's a very straight forward rocker with some great solos by Dave and Adrian. The vocals are different, and more atmospheric but I still like them very much.
Now, the first part (Satellite 15) is so different. When I first played it, my reaction was some what like "huh...woah...weird...sweet...coool....AWESOME" It's really experimental and it reminds me of the anguish of some poor astronaut abandoned in space, very interesting vocals at this part as well, great song that probably doesn't work for every one. Very very very experimental =p
2. El Dorado (6:48)
This was the other track I'd already heard, and I've heard it a lot since June as it was released as a single. Great song, it just makes you bob your head, you just do it to the pumping base and groovy drums. The guitars also work great and add the whole rock feel. My only complaint was I KINDVE wish that there was a bit more variation in the vocals during the verse, but I think Maiden and Bruce knew what they were doing best. It's a lyrical song, reminiscent of Somewhere in Time (Wasted Years like intro and stuff) I loved it because it also has great great solos from all 3 guitarists
3. Mother of Mercy (5:20)
The moment this track started, I knew it was Maiden. Beautiful melodic intro with folkish vocal melodies that leads into pretty heavy carnage with some overwrought Bruce vocals. I love some of the guitar work on this track as well as the vocal melodies, it's great. Adrian has a really cool solo (I think it's Adrian) A song about war, which I always love and as always, Iron Maiden captured the essence of it all perfectly, really not much else to say. I really really enjoyed my first listen.
4. Coming Home (5:52)
Although it starts out relatively heavy, this really is a beautiful balad song, I think it's a bit more of a powerbalad, but it's still really great. It has the signature Maiden soaring chorus, the kind which would reduce grown men to crying blubbers during a concert. It's a touching song, I'm thinking it's about coming home from a long journey which for Maiden would be a tour. Once again, I loved this song from the very first listen, Dave does a really cool little balad solo followed by a trademark Adrian one.
5. The Alchemist (4:29)
The first thing I thought when listening to this song, was that it belongs on Fear of the Dark!! It has such a Janicky feel to it, it's very bouncy, and generally fun, some great harmonies on it. Love it =p
6. Isle of Avalon (9:06)
ZOMG, my mind was blown over like 10 times when I first heard this song and it still blows over every time I hear it. What a song!!! It has this amazing atmosphere and the trademark Iron Maiden epic feeling. I love it. It's the kind of song which, when it ends you sit there and reflect on just how amazing it is. That, is the Iron Maiden epic. It also has a bit of an environmental feeling to it, makes me feel bad for destroying mother earth.
7. Starblind (7:08)
On first listen, I think I missed the first 2 minutes because I was still totally mind blown from Isle of Avalon. This how ever is another very epic song. It's pretty heavy, and it has some amazing lyrics, very very very strong song lyrically. During the verses there are these aweessomee little guitar fills going on in the back ground, they never get old!! =D I love it, great song =) Love the harmonies near the end as well =D
8. The Talisman (9:03)
K.O. I was dead, it was tooo much!!! So epic!!! This song blew my mind, again. It has this awesome little camp fire intro, and I got into that so much when all of a sudden BAM HEAVY CALAMITY I was like WOAH, YEAHH!!!!! Some great great singing on this one, great solos, great everything. Great performance, Good job Iron Maiden!!!!! This song kindve reminds me of The Legacy, it also has a bit more of a Janick feel on it then the some of the other ones, there's this Janick solo under a harmony and that's pretty cool.
9. The Man who would be king (8:28)
Same thing as Starblind, I was still recovering from The Talisman when I heard this. It's a really good song, I suppose it may feel less grand and epic than some of the previous ones, but It's still really good, most people seem to like it less, not me. I love the acoustic part with the vocals near the end. There's quite a bit of cool synths in the intro, I think it creates a pretty awesome atmosphere =p
10. When the wild wind blows (10:59)
YES!!!! 11 minute Haris epic! What a song! :) This really has some amazing vocal melodies, amazing harmonies, amazing solos, cool bass parts and a great atmosphere. It doesn't even feel like 11 minutes, because of how awesome it is. It's hard to describe it even. A very very touching song about a Nuclear holocaust. When I first heard it, it did sound very different to what I was imagining, but I think it sounded better, it's really different with some great rhythmic elements. I admit I was tearing up at the end of it, because of it's structure, meaning and the fact that it's the last song from an amazing album from an amazing band! :D
I am such a Maiden fan boy =)
The Final Frontier is a really good album, it has reduced me from a civilized man into a blubbering wreck where I can't really describe it without sounding a little bit stupid. Worth the listen, go take a listen! do it!! =D
UP THE IRONS!!!!
Note* When I say "Iron Maiden epic," I'm not always really referring to the song as being better than most other Maiden songs, no. Rather, it is one of the Maiden songs which has their signature grandness to it, a great and bold like BIG song that has a really epic feeling, the kind that leaves something behind when it's gone.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
He's riding the 4 string highway
Today was a biiggg day!!!
well kindve;
First off, Ramadan starts tomorrow, which basically means that this handsome young fellow has to start fasting, meaning he's going on a diet :p
Ramadan is a strange thing for me, I don't give it the appropriate religious importance which maybe I should, I look at it in more of a family thing. It's an ordeal that my entire family takes on together and so I feel obligated to do so as well.
Well, the next month will suck :) (fasting lasts from sunrise to sunset, and since the days are so long these days, this boy will be fasting for a Looonngg time each day,) at least he gets to sleep half the day :)
On saturday, I have invited some good friends to come and join me in my humble sleeping chambers ( for a sleepover, more manly referred to as a Sausagefest) this should be a pleasant and enjoyable experience
But why
was
TODAY
such
a
BIG
day?!
BECAUSE, I bought a BASS GUITAR!!!
hoo (I am spoilt and now I am in debt =[ )
After watching Steve Harris and Geddy Lee live, this man was inspired and I knew that I needed a bass ASAP
Pic: related, the bass I got, well not THE one but the same model and color and every thing.
Bass guitar, for those of you who don't know is indeed a very unique instrument. Bassists will kill you if you mistake them for a guitarist, so make no mistake :)
It looks similar to a guitar, but it's played very differently; or you can play it similarly too but it's not really in the Bass vibe to do so :)
The 4 strings are tuned the same as the lower 4 strings on a guitar, but 1 octave lower and the whole thing is in Bass clef, pretty darn cool! :)
Now, I just need to actually get to learning it while continuing my guitar and drum journey, the challenge begins but it is one that I most eagerly await :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
August
Well, it appears that the summer is now closer to ending as opposed to longer
August is here. or at least, was here quite a few days ago.
So far, I cannot really describe this summer. I suppose I have been more active than most summers, but I have also been tortured more than most summers.
July was mind-blowingly amazing while retaining a sense of torturous servitude. I was volunteering in Summer camp for 4 weeks straight with little 3-5 year olds. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but it really does mess with ones schedule, I had to sleep EARLY, like 12:30 in the night early during summer, I mean come on seriously? and then wake up at 8...No wonder every one got taller, except me =[
On top of that, you have to work every thing else you do around summer camp and thats a bother
So why was July AMAZING?!??? well obviously IRON MAIDEN, DREAM THEATER, RUSH AND MEGADETH, my 4 Favorite bands in concerts and T-shirts for memories sake :) yes, those days saved me, they did.
One should have seen me around the kids the day after the concerts :) :) :) =]
So now August is here...
August Agenda:
-Starcraft 2 / doing absolutely nothing
-Finish learning Metropolis on guitar, amongst other musical things
-Buy a bass :)
-Sausagefest/ parties, coolio
-Driving lessons every Saturday :p
-Remove Wisdom teeth
-wait, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
-Ramadan - fasting
-Say bye bye to big brother going to university (finally! :) )
-Listen to tons and tons of music
-Daddy's coming home from...home :p (Pakistan)
but MOST IMPORTANTLY::
\m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ AUGUST 16TH, THE FINAL FRONTIER!!!!!! \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/
[New Iron Maiden album coming out, SO SO SO SO SO SO SO excited]
...and yes, they do still make albums, and tour and are crazy awesome :)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
MEGADETH, Testament and Slayer
This was quite the night, I now have a head ache, and my neck hurts from all the head banging. But you know what, its a good kind of pain. I went to the long-delayed Megadeth concert (delayed since November '09 =[ ) and boy it was pretty awesome.
Testament opened, we ran kindve late so I did miss a few songs, but I swear they performed just as I expected. I've always liked Testament, mostly for their guitarist and he was great. Definitely banged my head a lot there.
Then came MEGADETH, now this was the best part of the concert for me. Megadeth was AMAZING, they played an AMAZING set list, with ALL of my favorite album (RUSH IN PEACE \m/) along with some other GREAT choices. Other than this, their musicianship was amazing and they had a some what graceful stage presence. Chris Broderick is absolutely mindblowingly fantastically amazing. I banged my head during this like no tomorrow, it was great.
Then came SLAYER, a huge band them selves that I have never been as familiar with nor as much of a fan. To be 100% honest, I kindve found Slayer a bit repetitive, and most of the songs I've heard from them they didn't actually play. Non-the-less, they were great. I enjoyed them and I can definitely appreciate them being one of the absolute biggest names in metal. Slayer was pure head banging, my neck hurt too much from Megadeth for me to do much, but it was pure head banging it just made you want to head bang. At least for the first few songs :p
The crowd was definately a Slayer crowd though, they loved Slayer like no tomorrow. Megadeth was also loved but definately to a smaller extent, just exiting the theatre to shouts of SLAYER, SLAYER etc kindve worked as a TESTAMENT (see what I did there) to this fact.
Slayer was loud. I swear it. I wore ear phones for Testament and Slayer, I could still hear fine but I wanted to preserve my hearing. Slayer was darn darn darn loud. And it was pretty cool because they had the classic Marshall stack wall behind them (18 Marshall cabs stacked behind the players) and of course since there were 2 guitarists, they were running 36 cabs which is retarded in addition to the speakers >.>
None of the bands had an AMAZING set it self, since really theres 2 huge bands and 1 pretty large one so its hard to do something like the Maiden or Rush concert were 1 band was headlining or what ever, but the sets worked and the lighting was pretty cool.
It was great to see David Ellefson back in Megadeth, he played some really cool bass parts and a lot of times he was alone on stage. Right before Peace sells he came out alone and was like ARE YOU STILL WITH US TORONTO *breaks into song* pretty awesome :) \m/ rock on Dave and David \m//
Even though I told myself I'm not going to buy another shirt, I ended up doing that just because of how awesome Megadeth is ;)
I'll be honest, I don't think any concert again will ever be like my first concert with Maiden because that was just speechlessly amazing I can't even describe the experience. How ever, this Megadeth/Slayer concert definitely had a similar feel in the sense that there was some great energy around. Looking around and seeing so many Slayer fans pumping their fists and head banging to a crazy extent was something. Not the same as seeing hundreds of lighters during Fear of the dark, but definitely something.
You know, a lot of people get scared of like Slayer fans and stuff, but really they aren't bad at all. Every person I met today, or bumped into just turned around with a massive smile, pumped their devil fists and yelled SLAYYERRR or ROCK ON or what ever. Watching them interact with others was a similar experience. It is its own culture, a culture that is often mis understood and mis termed by others who aren't part of it and don't understand what it means to be a heavy metal fan. Now personally, I admit I'm more of a Classic rock or what ever guy, but I can definitely understand the way these people feel and I often feel with them, I enjoy their presence. Don't be too scared of people like this my friends, there isn't much chance of them being worse than many others you may see.
Testament setlist: (I wish I didn't miss the first 2 songs ='[ ] (we were RIGHT outside in the cue, it was so QQ because we could just hear it and yeah lol )
For The Glory Of
More Than Meets the Eye
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
The New Order
Practice What You Preach
Into the Pit
The Persecuted Won't Forget
The Formation Of Damnation
Megadeth Setlist: <3 (L) <3;
Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
Poison Was the Cure
Lucretia
Tornado of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust in Peace... Polaris
Trust
Headcrusher
A Tout Le Monde
Symphony Of Destruction
Encore:
Peace Sells
Slayer setlist:
World Painted Blood
War Ensemble
Blood Red
Spirit in Black
Expendable Youth
Dead Skin Mask
Hallowed Point
Skeletons of Society
Temptation
Born of Fire
Seasons in the Abyss
Encore:
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Angel of Death
Testament opened, we ran kindve late so I did miss a few songs, but I swear they performed just as I expected. I've always liked Testament, mostly for their guitarist and he was great. Definitely banged my head a lot there.
Then came MEGADETH, now this was the best part of the concert for me. Megadeth was AMAZING, they played an AMAZING set list, with ALL of my favorite album (RUSH IN PEACE \m/) along with some other GREAT choices. Other than this, their musicianship was amazing and they had a some what graceful stage presence. Chris Broderick is absolutely mindblowingly fantastically amazing. I banged my head during this like no tomorrow, it was great.
Then came SLAYER, a huge band them selves that I have never been as familiar with nor as much of a fan. To be 100% honest, I kindve found Slayer a bit repetitive, and most of the songs I've heard from them they didn't actually play. Non-the-less, they were great. I enjoyed them and I can definitely appreciate them being one of the absolute biggest names in metal. Slayer was pure head banging, my neck hurt too much from Megadeth for me to do much, but it was pure head banging it just made you want to head bang. At least for the first few songs :p
The crowd was definately a Slayer crowd though, they loved Slayer like no tomorrow. Megadeth was also loved but definately to a smaller extent, just exiting the theatre to shouts of SLAYER, SLAYER etc kindve worked as a TESTAMENT (see what I did there) to this fact.
Slayer was loud. I swear it. I wore ear phones for Testament and Slayer, I could still hear fine but I wanted to preserve my hearing. Slayer was darn darn darn loud. And it was pretty cool because they had the classic Marshall stack wall behind them (18 Marshall cabs stacked behind the players) and of course since there were 2 guitarists, they were running 36 cabs which is retarded in addition to the speakers >.>
None of the bands had an AMAZING set it self, since really theres 2 huge bands and 1 pretty large one so its hard to do something like the Maiden or Rush concert were 1 band was headlining or what ever, but the sets worked and the lighting was pretty cool.
It was great to see David Ellefson back in Megadeth, he played some really cool bass parts and a lot of times he was alone on stage. Right before Peace sells he came out alone and was like ARE YOU STILL WITH US TORONTO *breaks into song* pretty awesome :) \m/ rock on Dave and David \m//
Even though I told myself I'm not going to buy another shirt, I ended up doing that just because of how awesome Megadeth is ;)
I'll be honest, I don't think any concert again will ever be like my first concert with Maiden because that was just speechlessly amazing I can't even describe the experience. How ever, this Megadeth/Slayer concert definitely had a similar feel in the sense that there was some great energy around. Looking around and seeing so many Slayer fans pumping their fists and head banging to a crazy extent was something. Not the same as seeing hundreds of lighters during Fear of the dark, but definitely something.
You know, a lot of people get scared of like Slayer fans and stuff, but really they aren't bad at all. Every person I met today, or bumped into just turned around with a massive smile, pumped their devil fists and yelled SLAYYERRR or ROCK ON or what ever. Watching them interact with others was a similar experience. It is its own culture, a culture that is often mis understood and mis termed by others who aren't part of it and don't understand what it means to be a heavy metal fan. Now personally, I admit I'm more of a Classic rock or what ever guy, but I can definitely understand the way these people feel and I often feel with them, I enjoy their presence. Don't be too scared of people like this my friends, there isn't much chance of them being worse than many others you may see.
Testament setlist: (I wish I didn't miss the first 2 songs ='[ ] (we were RIGHT outside in the cue, it was so QQ because we could just hear it and yeah lol )
For The Glory Of
More Than Meets the Eye
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
The New Order
Practice What You Preach
Into the Pit
The Persecuted Won't Forget
The Formation Of Damnation
Megadeth Setlist: <3 (L) <3;
Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
Poison Was the Cure
Lucretia
Tornado of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust in Peace... Polaris
Trust
Headcrusher
A Tout Le Monde
Symphony Of Destruction
Encore:
Peace Sells
Slayer setlist:
World Painted Blood
War Ensemble
Blood Red
Spirit in Black
Expendable Youth
Dead Skin Mask
Hallowed Point
Skeletons of Society
Temptation
Born of Fire
Seasons in the Abyss
Encore:
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Angel of Death
Friday, July 23, 2010
The "right" road
My English Short story assignment, a potentially true masterpiece. =)
This was written a long time ago, so please forgive my incompetence! I swear I've become a slightly better writer (in terms of grammar). I just didn't want to edit/change anything to keep its authenticity!
===========================================================
The wind rustled Zammar’s silky black hair as the prairie landscape flashed by on his sides. He travelled fast atop his shining white mare, a form of travel that was now a common habit, and requiring no thought on his par. Riding became a second action, and his mind was free to ponder. Thoughts raced through his head faster than his mare through the prairie landscape.
“Which one..?” his train of thought was interrupted by the creaking of his shining armour, cursing at this hindering inconvenience that was forced upon him by his overprotective mother, Zammar stood up, his feet steadily planted upon his moving mares back. He hurriedly removed the armour, tossing it to the ground to expose a bare chest. The sun glistened off his jostling muscles, creating a reflection of his eight-pack abdominals upon the still puddles on the road.
Settling back down, Zammar noticed from the awed stares of the women that he was presently riding through a village. The women reminded Zammar of the one thing he had never had: true love, all women had been too intimidated by his bulging muscles and superior intellect, rejecting him on the account of being far inferior to his superior being. Despite his physical greatness, Zammar dreamt of a wife he could love with all his heart. This moment of emotional pain drew him back to his previous thoughts.
Which one to rescue? They were both princesses, both inherited royal blood, both lived a royal life and had a caring family. Both were at the age to marry. Zammar felt his deathly hourglass tick closer, and saw it through his keen eyesight. The fatal crossing approached from a distance, a fork that divided the road into two. The left road would lead him to Princess Bolga, a hulking woman with immense power, both politically and physically. Loved by her people, she controlled an entire kingdom independently. The right road would take him to Princess Florence, a beautiful angel on earth whose auburn hair and slender form were the envy of woman-a-many. Florence was however, a princess that had no power under her father; she was loved by none but family and infatuated men, how ever she was also hated by none but jealous housewives and women. As the crossroad fast approached, the pressure built on Zammar. He was unable to rescue both princesses, as the threatened execution time fast approached, leaving no room to return for the other. Zammar was faced with a situation of playing god and choosing who lives and who dies. Despite hours dwelling over this, Zammar’s decision was made in a second.
“I must turn left and rescue Princess Bolga, rescuing her is necessary for the survival of many, not to mention her popularity amongst the people,” he said out loud as if to confirm to himself, despite his intense guilt, he knew that this was best.
With his decision set, Zammar rode on, allowing the wind to rustle his hair and tickle his muscular back. After what seemed like only a few seconds, he found himself at the crossroad. Without hesitation or thought at all, Zammar turned right. His mind was blank as he raced down the road, an invisible force driving him onwards. It was not long before he reached the towering castle where the princess was held hostage. Leaping off his mare in a flash of grace, Zammar ran on until he stood beneath the massive gates. These he pulled open easily and continued on into the dark dreary interior.
It was not long before he spotted the guardian, a dragon routinely pacing the halls. It would have been easy for him to wring its wide neck and penetrate its thick hide utilising his muscles, however he chose not to, his reasoning being that dragons were an endangered species. He tip toed to the Princess chamber. Slowly he opened the door, so as not to startle the princess. His efforts were however, wasted. The shock of the princess as she saw this muscular, manly and exceptionally handsome man walk in was beyond that of description. The two lost themselves in the eyes of the other, Zammar in a tempest of love and the princess in a blinding shock at the change in her perception of reality. This state of consciousness lasted for a full minute before Zammar boldly broke the silence.
“Princess, we must be off”
“y-yes” stammered the princess
The two exited the room however; the unathletic princess was unable to keep up with Zammar’s long stride. She soon stumbled and fell to her knees, gasping for breath. At this same moment, a deep roar sounded within the lower hall ways. Realizing the urgency of the situation, Zammar grabbed the princess, and flinging her over his shoulders, he ran on as if he were unburdened. Suddenly, he felt a flash of heat behind him and craning his neck, he saw the dragon giving chase. Zammar’s muscles tensed and he heard the slightest squeal. He increased his speed, caring only to rescue his beautiful, shining star. After what seemed like an eternity, Zammar jumped out the open gates, leaving the dragon close behind in his lair, unable to pursue any farther at risk of being seen and hunted.
“I’m going to return you to your people Princess and then maybe we can you know, go out some time and it’ll be great!” There was no reply. As realization struck, Zammar dropped the limp, tender body with a thud. It remained unchanged in beauty despite being internally crushed between Zammar’s bulging biceps. As he fell on his knees in tears, an execution horn sounded far in the distance.
This was written a long time ago, so please forgive my incompetence! I swear I've become a slightly better writer (in terms of grammar). I just didn't want to edit/change anything to keep its authenticity!
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The wind rustled Zammar’s silky black hair as the prairie landscape flashed by on his sides. He travelled fast atop his shining white mare, a form of travel that was now a common habit, and requiring no thought on his par. Riding became a second action, and his mind was free to ponder. Thoughts raced through his head faster than his mare through the prairie landscape.
“Which one..?” his train of thought was interrupted by the creaking of his shining armour, cursing at this hindering inconvenience that was forced upon him by his overprotective mother, Zammar stood up, his feet steadily planted upon his moving mares back. He hurriedly removed the armour, tossing it to the ground to expose a bare chest. The sun glistened off his jostling muscles, creating a reflection of his eight-pack abdominals upon the still puddles on the road.
Settling back down, Zammar noticed from the awed stares of the women that he was presently riding through a village. The women reminded Zammar of the one thing he had never had: true love, all women had been too intimidated by his bulging muscles and superior intellect, rejecting him on the account of being far inferior to his superior being. Despite his physical greatness, Zammar dreamt of a wife he could love with all his heart. This moment of emotional pain drew him back to his previous thoughts.
Which one to rescue? They were both princesses, both inherited royal blood, both lived a royal life and had a caring family. Both were at the age to marry. Zammar felt his deathly hourglass tick closer, and saw it through his keen eyesight. The fatal crossing approached from a distance, a fork that divided the road into two. The left road would lead him to Princess Bolga, a hulking woman with immense power, both politically and physically. Loved by her people, she controlled an entire kingdom independently. The right road would take him to Princess Florence, a beautiful angel on earth whose auburn hair and slender form were the envy of woman-a-many. Florence was however, a princess that had no power under her father; she was loved by none but family and infatuated men, how ever she was also hated by none but jealous housewives and women. As the crossroad fast approached, the pressure built on Zammar. He was unable to rescue both princesses, as the threatened execution time fast approached, leaving no room to return for the other. Zammar was faced with a situation of playing god and choosing who lives and who dies. Despite hours dwelling over this, Zammar’s decision was made in a second.
“I must turn left and rescue Princess Bolga, rescuing her is necessary for the survival of many, not to mention her popularity amongst the people,” he said out loud as if to confirm to himself, despite his intense guilt, he knew that this was best.
With his decision set, Zammar rode on, allowing the wind to rustle his hair and tickle his muscular back. After what seemed like only a few seconds, he found himself at the crossroad. Without hesitation or thought at all, Zammar turned right. His mind was blank as he raced down the road, an invisible force driving him onwards. It was not long before he reached the towering castle where the princess was held hostage. Leaping off his mare in a flash of grace, Zammar ran on until he stood beneath the massive gates. These he pulled open easily and continued on into the dark dreary interior.
It was not long before he spotted the guardian, a dragon routinely pacing the halls. It would have been easy for him to wring its wide neck and penetrate its thick hide utilising his muscles, however he chose not to, his reasoning being that dragons were an endangered species. He tip toed to the Princess chamber. Slowly he opened the door, so as not to startle the princess. His efforts were however, wasted. The shock of the princess as she saw this muscular, manly and exceptionally handsome man walk in was beyond that of description. The two lost themselves in the eyes of the other, Zammar in a tempest of love and the princess in a blinding shock at the change in her perception of reality. This state of consciousness lasted for a full minute before Zammar boldly broke the silence.
“Princess, we must be off”
“y-yes” stammered the princess
The two exited the room however; the unathletic princess was unable to keep up with Zammar’s long stride. She soon stumbled and fell to her knees, gasping for breath. At this same moment, a deep roar sounded within the lower hall ways. Realizing the urgency of the situation, Zammar grabbed the princess, and flinging her over his shoulders, he ran on as if he were unburdened. Suddenly, he felt a flash of heat behind him and craning his neck, he saw the dragon giving chase. Zammar’s muscles tensed and he heard the slightest squeal. He increased his speed, caring only to rescue his beautiful, shining star. After what seemed like an eternity, Zammar jumped out the open gates, leaving the dragon close behind in his lair, unable to pursue any farther at risk of being seen and hunted.
“I’m going to return you to your people Princess and then maybe we can you know, go out some time and it’ll be great!” There was no reply. As realization struck, Zammar dropped the limp, tender body with a thud. It remained unchanged in beauty despite being internally crushed between Zammar’s bulging biceps. As he fell on his knees in tears, an execution horn sounded far in the distance.
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