Burn Baby Burn!

Disco Inferno! Oh Homecoming, the time when Dartmouth students get together and have the most amazing weekend ever. Freshman run around the ridiculously huge bonfire while the upperclassmen "cheer" them on. Oh fun! But it's also the time when there's lots of great parties! It was a great weekend and I had lots of fun. It's quite ridiculous, I don't feel like writing right now. I feel like going back to wondering why I still have the least interest in getting homework done. I've officially become lazy in arabic, seemingly interested in my art history course, and mediocre (at best) in my sculpture class. This is not me! I prefer writing plays, drawing comics, making posters, dancing, singing, anything else! Which is fine, but at the same time, where am I?!?! WHERE! Kool. My two seconds of obvious insanity. I'm not bothered by it. I'm more bothered about not being bothered about it! So I've decided, that girls are complicated. That came from no where, but as you can see, my thoughts are more out of sync than terrible music notes. It's time to go do something, like come up with a good concept for a comic. Because CLEARLY, that's more important. I had a great conversation today about the philosophy of art and basically the question of what can be called art? I'll fuss about that later, now I'm off to wonder why I have not watched an episode of smallville ever since I've been here. That and why it's taken me this long to finally be spider-man on halloween. Where has my childhood gone!??! Anything can happen when the sky is confused. It snowed today!

Note To Self

Who am I? Am I African. Am I American? Am I the ultra-hybrid African-American, or am I truly none of these. The answer is simple. I'm me. I'm not special, just unique. I'm not good at everything I do, I'm just multi-talented. And last but not least, I'm not wise... just honest. And after freshman year I thought I knew. I thought I knew for sure who I was. And then, sophomore year took a left turn for disaster. Yet, only for a moment. When I realized that inside myself was this dancer and this fratboy I began to really doubt who I decided I was. No. A fool I was, and in that moment of aesthetic idiocy or poetic lunacy... I thought I had lost myself. I didn't. Instead, I progressed. You see, when a person finds himself the next thing he searches for is his home. Where do I belong? This is why I chose one dance group over the other, and this is why I felt the need to join a frat. I see now how much of a fool I was. Today, I depledged only because I felt I was doing it to prove something. I did it because it was what my friends wanted. A foolish and childish reason to do anything. Deep down, it was not what I wanted. On this journey of self discovery I know who I am in terms of morals and values... the next step is figuring out who I am in terms of community and family. I enjoy dancing in Sheba. Frats are just not my thing. That's all there is to it. I'm still learning, and I'm proud of my decision. I'm a happier person for it. The world was beautiful today. I had forgotten, because my mind was occupied by life's burdens. No more, I will continue my journey... Ask me. I dare you to ask me what the meaning of life is. It's simple, ask me and I'll say "The meaning of life is balance. "

Madness

Hey True Believers! (I've always wanted to say that) Here we are on the Madness of what is supposed to be Sunday, but is clearly Monday. Here I sit truly wondering why the hell my homework is far from complete, and what's more compelling, why I don't care. I prefer everything else. I prefer hours of pledge stuff, I prefer hours of Sheba (which we'll talk about in a few), I prefer swinging around a comic-book NYC (which we will also talk about), I prefer talking with my residents. I prefer all these things, and yet I am here at Dartmouth, where academics must mean something. And then, I decided... college would be a much better place without homework. I don't mind classes, but heck if you can get rid of that two... two birds. It really would. Moving On.

First Sheba Performance: It was so fun! I had a blast. With the exception of the first four counts I totally killed it and I was so happy.

Ultimate Spider-man: Very briefly (maybe a more in depth review when I'm less busy) It's a very good game. It reminds of those classic gen games like sega and nintendo, with much better graphics and better controls. It's fun. It's a good story. I love the comic, I love the game. I actually enjoy the swinging quite a bit. A lot of people complain it's too simple, but there are definitely some nifty technical aspects to it. It's a very fun game. I also enjoy the combat because it's very true to the USM comic. Good game.

I'm fasting for Ramadan and it's going well. I might go to Morocco in the Spring, that's pretty exciting. That's it for now. Seeya!

Poetic Mistake

In the past couple of weeks, I have joined a dance group for which I will be performing soon and rushed a frat, which I'm now pledging. Never in my whole first week at Dartmouth had I imagine myself as a dancer or a fratboy. These are two very distinct characters that I feel far removed from. So the question becomes why. Why have I done this? People have been surprised, but no one has been more surprised than me. I just fell into this path completely by accident, and the overall rhthym of this mistake is so fragile and delicate that it seems almost poetic that my inner demons are just as human as me. Are these my next steps into adulthood. Am I just growing away from peace, and embracing spontaneity? My demons are not evil like others. My dark secret is that I don't know what I'll do next. What will I become next? Am I truly the Jack of All Trades? No. But from a distance, it sure does seem like it.

CRASH. Great movie. Pretty Intense. At times it feels orchestrated, and the director definitely manipulates the audience. Amazing cast and acting, and very brilliant direction. Although there's no real character development, there is a lot of character growth. I appreciate this movie, because of its insensitive in your face point. Great great movie. It's a very human movie. Go see it!

Trip to Hanover

Every once in a while I realize just how much I love my family. Especially when they (they being my two sisters) decide to come visit me. It makes me very happy. We watched the SHEBA show, ate indian food, and enjoyed each other's company. And they brought me Ultimate Spider-man, which is just great news. I'm still going through some personal stuff, but at least this week (ever since tuesday) was very happy for me. That I appreciate. Time to go chill....

Melodrama

I prefer to be happy than sad.

Ely's Stone of Aceun's Zest

So I own a personal diary. The title of the diary is written above. Elyseidon (Ely for short) is a mythical creature that serves as Aceun's animal counterpart. In the early history of the Uneon Civilization, the Elites all had animal counterparts hidden in what were called Soul Swords. Each animal represented something for the specific Elite. Ely represented Aceun's might. In the story, Aceun's personal feelings began to interfere with his fight for the Uneon Cause (as they called it.. it was a time period of expansion and cultural progression). What Aceun did was create a stone that hid all his personal feelings and gave it to Ely to guard. In this diary, I relay all my true feelings with sort of a philosophical backtone, as well as a brief synopsis of what's going on the Uneon World. Now, this blog's purpose is not for me to express any of my personal feelings, I prefer to stay mysterious. I feel like in my past couple of outings, I've gotten a little bit more personal than I like to. However, I did promise to explain what I meant by Immortality of the Mind, and so here is a direct quote from 'Ely's Stone of Aceun's Zest.' The entry is apporpriately titled "Immortality of the Mind."

Knowledge Disastrous?

No... What you understand as knowledge is disastrous. What knowledge really is, what the mind really is, is peace. Immortality of the mind is the ultimate recognition of peace through faith. Knowing everything, is dangerous, but knowing how to live your life in a positive way and open mind, is faith.

Hospitality, is the next step in achieving faith. The togetherness of one’s soul is merely a piece of ultimate unity. With others, you love and find the things you have always been looking for. Your curiosity and thirst has hurt you in many ways. But faith does not completely throw you aside for your stupid mistakes. There’s still time.

The world of Juedun is filled with laughter. Humor carries through the sky and creates an atmosphere of happiness. To be able to laugh at what is, that is the gift of heaven. I laugh today because I know I have a world to return to where I am comfortable.

But I must get back to Uno. Recio is a madman. He must be stopped. His politics corrupt and his lust for power and lust for what he believes to be the immortality of the mind. I must return laughter to this fool’s kingdom. And indeed, a fool he is, but a dangerous one…

So what I do with these entries is a personalize it according to my life, and then I fuse it with Aceun's story. It's a good way for me to get my thoughts out as well as progress the story. Like I said, the story is ten parts. I'm on part 7. The story now is about Recio's dominance over Uno, as well as the struggle to fit into the new world of Juedun.

Finishing Last

Why is it 4:00am? Because I'm a good friend, a selfless human being, hell-bent on being so nice, that I wouldn't be surprised if the tortoise beat me in this race. Love's ladder has once again left me below the final step wishing somehow, someway, I will one day be able to climb. Yet I'm so wrapped up in the friend aspect, that I feel myself moving farther away from the physical and losing in the race because of it. It's a race. It's a blood-pumping, high adrenaline mad dash for victory, and I feel content because I've found 'stability' but saddened, because it might not go beyond that. I totally feel like I'm not making sense right now, but in order to keep this safe, I must be cryptic.

Aside from this wierd feeling of victory and defeat all at once, I had a great day. Productive in a very fun way. I really appreciated today, for the pottery, for the SNES, for night jams. It was good times, but I just felt I needed to say something out of the ordinary... and this was definitely the time to do it.