Still rollin'

Another game, another victory. Go club basketball! My thanks go out to those who came out to watch the game. I hope it was worth your time. For those interested, we have a big game this Thursday at 8 pm against Tyndale. It'll be a real gas, I promise, and it's free. And it's something besides writing papers, which is, in several ways, a good thing.

Aside from that, I just recently heard the newest Avril Lavigne track, "Nobody's Home." I was enthralled by the cleverest of rhymes...

She wants to go home
But there's nobody home

Rhyming home with home.... genius. As her website says, her new album is filled with "a one-two punch of three-chord guitar licks" and "radio-ready chorus." Three whole chords?! That's, like, more than two. Which is better than blue. And comes with a shoe. Please enjoy the following.

Ani diFranco - Revelling

you were so in love
that it was all you could talk about
and i think i felt a little left out
you were on cloud 9 all the time
while i was levelling
i was wringing my hands and you were revelling

but then why shouldn't you?
it was such a beautiful thing to do

would that i could get me some
of your yum yum delirium
i could level off the ground that we stand on
but with you down on bended knee
always looking up at me
that feeling of standing up together is gone

and though i love you through all time and space
my love always seems to take second place

you were so in love
that it was all you could talk about
and i think i felt a little left out
you were on cloud 9 all the time
while i was levelling
i was wringing my hands and you were revelling
but then why shouldn't you?
it was such a beautiful thing to do

Like A Rolling Stone

What a scruffy old bugger.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Rolling Stone magazine recently named "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan the greatest rock song ever. Three cheers for the best songwriter of our time! The top album of all time... "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by the Beatles. No surprise there, really. The 60's dominated the list of the top 500 rocks songs of all time. The 90's pulled in a meagre 3, two of which came courtesy of Eminem. The 80's did even worse, with only the Clash's "London Calling" making the list, at #15. I guess we've been living in a musical wasteland.

Tax dollars at work

For those nice people south of the border, here is a wonderful example of military spending. I bet you didn't know that teleportation was real...

Bear in mind, "Warp Drive Metrics" is located in the bustling scientific hub of.. Las Vegas, does not have a website, and is not to be found in the Las Vegas phone directory. Must be top secret.

Looks like someone's got a case of the Mondays...

My brother and his girlfriend came down this weekend, two people whom I haven't seen in quite a while. It was good times, although the "snacks" they brought along were just odd. Imagine my surprise when I bit into my walnut "muffin" and red bean paste oozed out. Now, I'm a huge fan of Toronto's oriental district, and in particular the food that comes out of it, but I think these should have been left wherever they came from.

On another note, Macleans magazine recently came out with it's annual university rankings. A school very close to my heart, McMaster University, once again cracked the top 10, which pleased me a great deal. Maybe one day our very own Redeemer will find it's way on the list. Seriously. Give it 25 years and some rich alumni, and I wouldn't be surprised to see RUC getting some national recognition. What really struck me, though, was the full page ad that Tyndale Bible College had in the magazine. I don't imagine such ads come cheap... but is this something RUC should consider? I don't know, it just got me thinking, I suppose. How much do we really want the "outside world" to take notice of us?

On... yet another note, my computer is once again stocked with music, courtesty of Joel Harsevoort. A little Ani DiFranco soothes the soul. Life is good.

Quote of the week: "Hey man, wanna give me untold thousands?"
- Dan Postma

Omid (Hope)

Day by Day, people get sick of one another
Day by day, people chase each other away
I chose solitude
For I lost faith in my world
I had dreams of peace
How simple hearted was I
Day by day, people get sick of one another
Day by day, people chase each other away
Omid do what is in your power
To save us from all this pain
Forbid our lives to go by
So fast and abruptly
Without true love and happiness
Day by Day, people get sick of one another
Day by day, people chase each other away

translated from Farsi (Persian)

Although they didn't write the lyrics, my thanks go out to the musicians of Thievery Corporation for drawing my attention to it.

Art is over my head

I have to do a review of an artwork for class. So, I have to go to a gallery, do some background research and all that, and then write about the artwork as if I knew what I was talking about. Y'know, aesthetic philosophy and all that other fun stuff. This wouldn't be such a problem, except that I can't for the life of me find meaning in paintings. I can appreciate them for their beauty, for looking nice, and for obviously requiring a lot of skill, but that's not really the point. So, what am I missing? Do I completely lack any scrap of creativity? I've made an effort to go to art shows, expand my horizons and all that, and at times I've considered that maybe everyone is just pretending. Maybe no one sees meaning in art. Maybe it's all just whatever you want to see. Am I wrong here?

To be fair, I can't draw/paint/sculpt to save my life. My complete lack of ability in this area may be influencing my opinions here.

On a side note, the NBA regular season is once again in full swing. Go Raptors! Someone should really come to a game with me. It's all sorts of fun.

Tip-off Tournament

Three cheers for the RUC men's club basketball team. After gliding to a 104-45 win on Friday night, we scored another gutsy win on Saturday, 79-57. Sure, we're not the varsity team... but who cares? We actually win!

As a side note, I am now thoroughly sick of highway 401. I wasn't bred to spend hours in traffic. I'm more of a free range cow. Or bull. I don't know animals...

TECH SUPPORT!

Oh man...

This may be a problem

Our glorious information age

My thanks go out to Dan Postma for bringing up an interesting issue. What role does the internet, and instant messengers/chat rooms play in our relationships? It seems that for many people, their preferred method of communication and conversation is MSN. I won't deny that it has it's uses, but it's so wretchedly impersonal.

Granted, everyone knows someone that lives in the kingdom of Far, Far Away (princess Fiona, perhaps?) and instant messaging is cheaper than phoning and faster than emailing... but what about people we see nearly every day? It seems unfortunate that we automatically take the easier route, rather than the better route.

On a completely unrelated note, I have no idea how to code, and all of my efforts at bending this blog to my will have been thwarted. Maybe I'm just bitter towards technology.